For more than two decades, Ellendale’s Timothy Colstrup has been engaged in a land beautification business.

As the owner of Colstrup Sod & Landscaping, he grows sod, harvests it and then sells it to people who are building new homes or businesses or who are renovating old ones. It’s often the finishing touch on a project.

This summer, for example, Colstrup is heading up a team of men who are placing sod around the curbs of several Albert Lea streets that have undergone reconstruction.

From first glance, it might appear that the process of growing sod and transplanting it to a new location is an easy one, but like other crops, it takes time for the sod to both grow and to get to a point that it’s ready to sell.

Colstrup said for his sod farms, the sod — which is Kentucky bluegrass elite — is usually planted in September. It usually grows for two years before it is cut down, so a healthy root mass has time to develop.

After the sod is ready to be harvested, Colstrup prepares the crop to be transplanted by using the Trebro HarveStack machine, which can cut 700-square feet of sod in three minutes.

Set to a certain depth, height and width by a computer, the machine cuts through the sod, rolls it and then carries it over to a palette and stacks it.

The crop is usually stacked 10 rolls per layer on a palette, with seven layers on each.

Colstrup said a lot of people ask if he has to bring in dirt to grow the crop, but he said he has never had to. The soil is good, he said, and the sod actually uses up less soil than other crops while it is growing.

After the sod is harvested, he gathers a team of workers to go to the site where it will be transplanted, and the team works to pull out any dead grass and cut an edge for it to match up to any grass that was already in place.

“This is the tough part — doing all the prep work,” he said. “It’s hard work. It takes a toll on your body.”

The company will usually lay sod until the ground freezes, which is usually around Nov. 15. It’s actually best to lay sod down right before it freezes because the ground is cooler, he said.

The type of grass he grows is known for being darker in color, tolerant to droughts, resistant to disease and better performance in shade.

“Times are good for us,” Colstrup said. “We’ve got our land paid for and our equipment paid for.”

The sod farmer owns 80 acres, but this year he will only probably keep 50 acres in production because of a decline in new homes being built, he said. He’ll rent out the other acres to other farmers.

Colstrup said he originally went to college for forestry but ended up shifting to sod. He said he has taken a few classes on soil, but most of the knowledge he’s gained about growing a good crop have come from trial and error .

Colstrup got involved with sod in 1986 when he was in college. In 1993 he started growing his own sod on about 10 acres of land.

Now the company hauls sod as far away as Des Moines, Minneapolis and Wisconsin.