Hydroseeding in Salt Lake City, UT

Hydroseeding in Salt Lake City starts with the dirt you have. Most of the valley floor is the old bed of Lake Bonneville, and its former shorelines still show as terraces on the benches along the Wasatch and Oquirrh foothills. Our trucks mix seed, fertilizer, wood fiber mulch and a tackifier into one wet slurry and spray it over prepared soil, so the seed stays put and holds moisture while it sprouts. Homeowners use it for new lawns and lawn renovation; builders and property managers use it to close out graded lots, slopes and common areas.

A dry summer and a wet spring

According to the 1991 to 2020 normals for Salt Lake City International Airport, the city gets about 15.52 inches of precipitation a year. April is the wettest month at about 2.16 inches, while July averages 0.49 inches and August 0.58 inches. The average July high is about 94 degrees. Most of the year's moisture arrives with Pacific storms between October and May, and late-summer monsoon thunderstorms are scattered and hit some neighborhoods while missing others.

For seeding, that means two things. New seed cannot count on rain from June through August, so sprinklers or a temporary irrigation plan are part of every lawn job. And bare soil left open through spring is exposed to the heaviest rain of the year, which is when graded lots and slopes shed the most sediment.

When to seed in the Salt Lake Valley

Utah State University Extension's northern Utah turfgrass calendar marks April and May, then August and September, as the seeding months for cool-season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass and the fescues. Extension calls late summer the optimum time, because the soil is warm enough for fast germination, weeds are less active, and the young grass gets the cool fall and the following spring to root in before July heat returns. Extension also advises allowing four to six weeks before the expected first frost. Warm-season grasses such as buffalograss and blue grama are seeded in late spring and early summer instead.

We book most residential lawns into those two windows. Erosion control on construction sites is different: it goes down when the grading is finished, because covered soil beats bare soil in any month.

Salt, crust and compaction

USU Extension points out that in many parts of Utah, high salt levels in the soil limit the growth of some turfgrasses, especially Kentucky bluegrass, and that the white crust seen in many areas of the state is soluble salt. Its tables rate bluegrass as tolerating less salt than tall fescue or perennial ryegrass. Extension recommends a soil test from a certified lab before choosing a grass. When we see crusting, poor drainage or a lot built on fill, we suggest a test first, then adjust the seed mix or the soil prep to fit.

New-construction yards add compaction. Equipment rolls the subgrade hard, and seed sprayed on that surface sprouts but cannot root deeply. We loosen the top few inches, spread topsoil where it is thin, and fine grade with a fall that carries runoff off the foundation before any slurry goes down.

Sod vs hydroseed vs dry seed

Sod gives an instant lawn and, per USU, can be laid almost any time water is available, but it costs the most. HomeGuide's figures show sod at $1 to $4 a square foot installed and hydroseeding at $0.12 to $0.35. Dry broadcast seeding is the cheapest of the three, yet seed sitting loose on the surface dries out, washes off slopes, and is picked over by birds. University of Nebraska Extension describes hydroseeding as costing a little more than dry seeding and generally less than sod, with grass often visible in 5 to 7 days, where dry seed tends to need two to three weeks.

For most Salt Lake yards over a few thousand square feet, a hydroseed lawn is the middle path: lower cost than sod, better coverage and protection than dry seed, and the freedom to pick a seed mix for your soil and water budget rather than whatever the sod farm grew.

Stormwater, slopes and sediment

Under the EPA's construction stormwater rules, a Clean Water Act permit and sediment controls apply once a project disturbs one acre, and also to a smaller piece of a bigger development that will reach that size. On the ground that means a row of silt fence below the work, protected storm drain inlets, and bare soil stabilized once grading wraps up. The Jordan River runs through the city on its way from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake, and the creeks that come out of the Wasatch canyons carry whatever washes off a job site downstream.

Our erosion control services cover that work from start to finish: silt fence installation and inlet protection while the site is active, then hydromulch, bonded fiber matrix or straw and coir erosion control blankets on slopes, swales and basins, followed by final hydroseeding.

Water-wise cover

The city sits in a semi-arid valley, and sustained drought in Utah has strained water supplies and dropped the Great Salt Lake to record lows. Not every square foot needs to be bluegrass. On back slopes, park strips, drainage areas and acreage that will not be irrigated, a native grass or wildflower mix can hold soil and control dust with far less water once it is established. We often seed a lawn near the house and a native mix on the rest of the lot in the same visit. Utah State University Extension's northern Utah calendar also notes that irrigation is typically needed to keep turf healthy here, peaking at about once every two days in July, so every square foot of lawn carries a summer water commitment worth weighing up front.

What a job looks like

We visit, measure, and look at grade, soil and water. You get a written estimate with prep, seed, mulch and any erosion or sediment work listed separately. On seeding day we finish the grade, spray the slurry in overlapping passes, and walk you through watering. According to HomeGuide, a new hydroseeded lawn generally takes four to six weeks before it can be mowed, and we tell you what to watch for until then. Get a free estimate

Our base is Salt Lake City, and we work across Salt Lake County and into Davis and Tooele counties. On the east bench, Millcreek, Holladay, Cottonwood Heights and Sandy have older lawns under mature trees and yards that climb toward the canyons. Murray, Midvale, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville and West Valley City sit on flatter ground near the Jordan River, where we see lawn renovation, redevelopment sites and salty or poorly drained soil. Growth is fastest to the south and west: Draper, South Jordan, West Jordan, Riverton, Herriman and Bluffdale keep adding subdivisions that need new lawns, silt fence and final stabilization, as do Kearns and Magna below the Oquirrhs. North of the city, Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington and North Salt Lake have steep hillside lots, and over the mountains Tooele and Stansbury Park have their own snow, water and growth issues. Open any town below for the soil, slope and stormwater details that apply there.