Ventura, CA
 October 05, 1996
 Dear Southland Sod Farms:
 Three years ago we moved into a new custom home. The developer left the landscaping up to us. Our primary landscape concern was, of course, the type of grass to use in our lawn. This was an extremely important decision, since once installed, it's extremely difficult and costly to change. We learned that the hard way.

 Prior to moving to Ventura, we lived in Oxnard. The lawn had been severely neglected prior to our moving in. We researched all the possibilities. Seed washed away too easily. Hydro-seed was called hydro-weed by friends that had tried it. Sod seemed too expensive. We decided to use a seed mat rather than seed or sod. The cost was between that of seed alone and "expensive" sod and the seed would not wash away.

 After tilling and killing the vegetation three times over two months and installing a new sprinkler system, the soil was ready for the seed mat. While the light weight seed mat installed easily, the end results were disastrous. After a month of heavy watering, small green plants covered the front and back yard. The plants were a mixture of grass and weeds.

 The cost difference between the seed mat and sod was about $400. After considering the preparation time, and extra water requirements, the difference in installation cost for sod would have probably been less that $200. I would have gladly traded twice that rather than spend every weekend pulling weeds. The economy solution ended up costing us the most in the end.

 Needless to say, when we moved to Ventura, we were going to install sod. We went to Green Thumb and Home Depot. Green Thumb carries Marathon sod and Home Depot carried generic fescue. Marathon sod just looked better, it was green, dense, and healthy. Rather than saving $50 to $100 by purchasing an economy brand, we decided on Marathon sod.

 It's been nearly three years since we installed Marathon sod and it looks as good as the day we installed it. Our new neighbors liked it so much, they all bought Marathon sod too.

 Thank you for a great product and customer support.

 Sincerely,

 DJS