Installation of grass in the cage

When we moved into our house, it had a nice green lawn.  Nice as it was, we were philosophically opposed to the very concept of lawns.  So we killed it and planted vegetables and fruit trees.  We went from suburbia to a cross between Little House on the Prairie and Gilligan's Island.

But we carved out an area for our very talented son to practice batting and ordered a cage on amazon and built it up.  We could not put in vegetables, nor fruit trees, and were still against grass.  So we had a dirt and weed cage....

It's not that we're against dirt.  We love dirt.  But we don't love it on our clothes and in our home, which is where it ended up all too frequently.

So a couple weeks ago we went out to a wholesaler in Camarillo and ordered 580 sq.ft. of Bermuda (baseball) sod and an installation kit.  To meet some of our objections to grass, we got a good drought tolerant blend and decided to water with drip irrigation.  Drip irrigation is installed under the grass and uses a lot less water than sprinklers.

After a good rain, Taoster and I got out all the weeds and clovers (my bright idea to plant clovers as a substitute to grass) and smoothed out the dirt as best we can.  Then she planned out the irrigation system, got the pipes, connected them and put them in. So in the picture below, which was taken a day or two before installation, you can see the black pipes running the length of the cage which are spaced about 13" apart...

The company delivered the sod and soil prep at 6:45am Friday morning, 02/01/2019  The guy brought it on a big truck and couldn't find a parking spot by our home.  So he parked far away and brought it over on a forklift, and put it in our driveway.  The stuff came with instructions to install that day or it will likely be damaged. 

It had rained the day before delivery day, so the ground was good wet, as we needed to be.  Taoster and I spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon moving to the backyard and then installing.  I did the unskilled work of moving it back and Taoster cut the pieces, if necessary, and placed them in neat rows in the cage.


So this is the cage post-installation....

Today, 02/02/2019, the day after installation, we've gotten a good drenching, about 3-4 inches of rain.  Nature has, so far, kept our soil squishy, which is how it needs be for 10 days for it to become established.