Putting down instant turf during rainy weather

[Kimmyh51]

Hey guys hoping someone with some knowledge I dont have can help me out

I was given some instant turf today for free which i want to place over a muddy area my ducks have made (this is the stuff with live growing grass not the artificial stuff so its on a timeline as its already a few days old)

The problem is the guy who gave it to me is a landscaper who said it is a few days old (excess from a landscaping job a few days ago) and really needs to be laid tomorow or the day after at the latest or the grass will die

Its wet but i looked at the grass in the rolls, and it looked like some was going brown - i am guessing because of no sun for a few days or longer, not drying out (I am in the sthn hemisphere so its mid winter here)

anyway where i am it has been raining really hard tonight and is forecast to continue this tomorrow and the day after and several days after that

so waiting till the ground dries a little from the saturated muddy swamp that it is right now is not an option as the turf wont survive that long

just wondering if anyone out there has any ideas on how i can get it laid tomorrow in the heavy rain, and it not die?

the ground it will go on was already saturated before the heavy rain we have now and the ducks have been at it and turned it into a muddy cesspit (hence why i wanted to put this down).

The weather is horrible and I dint have any options to put down some dryer soil before laying it because this was not a planned exercise. I only got the option out of the blue today to get this for free so took it. So i havent planned

the best i could do is maybe get some sand from the local riverbed (if it is there - sometimes there is sand there, then It rains, the river changes and there is no sand, so not sure if there even is any right now and getting enough of it in my old trailer will take hours if it is even an option)

i have a couple of large sacks things full of old hay from my ducks runs, some of which on the bottom has probably turned to compost by now, but doubt enough to cover the entire area

i domt care at all if the ground is even, or anything like that, i just would really, really, REALLY like some grass where there is horrible stinky mud right now.

i live miles from anywhere and getting any sort of top soil or shingle etc is not an option due to distance and also not having my landlords permission to put that sort of thing down into the pasture where the turf will go (I do have permission to lay the turf itself) plusits sunday and a lot of places are closed anyway.

so i am probably asking a stupid question...... lol

but is there anything i can do when i am laying turf onto soaking uneven muddy ground in torrential rain with no machinery, no time to wait till the weather improves, no top soil, to make the outcome better?

if any experts want to know the brand is a nz brand called 'readylawn'and yes I have read all the info at this site. But there is no way I can install following their directions and as tomorrow is a sunday i cant call them either to ask advice

the longest i can wait is till monday nz ime, but the weather forecast is the same for monday as tomorrow so if anything the ground will be even wetter on Monday.
As of now it has water pooling all over - it it is raining too fast and the ground is already too saturated from constant rain in recent months to hold any more.

it basically looks like the attached photo but probably worse by morning given the non stop heavy rain all night

 

[Alagirl]

it can't hurt.
I thought you meant artificial, but you are talking sod.
Rake the area flat.
It will probably not survive long, but you won't know until you try!

Edit to add:
their instructions are likely for an installation on bare dirt after a new construction or when the yard gets turned over during heavy landscaping.
and during dryer conditions.
If you can, amend the soil, but don't sweat it.
At least you won't have to worry about keeping it watered, which is the biggest concern for new lawn/sod installations.
Make sure there is good contact with the ground, and try to avoid holes where the roots can't touch.

 

[Pollo Blanco]

I think that the sand and straw are excellent ideas. Maybe hit it with some liquid spray on fertilizer like Miracle-Gro.
I had some pesky raccoons tearing up my sod, but the fertilizer kept the roots alive and come spring it recovered nicely from the damage.

 

[Jenbirdee]

I would not put any straw because it will rot and stink, some sand is OK, but if I had to put sod over mud, I’d grab a giant cube of peat moss and throw that down first. But if I had the option, I put that sod somewhere else where it can do better and I’d put a combination of sand and pea gravel over the muddy spots. I think you’re wasting the sod if you put it where ducks can get to it anyway it won’t last long.

Edit to add: I lost a bunch of sod by putting it over mud several years ago, and I lost a lot of sod, putting it on good ground in a duck area, where it didn’t last long.