It’s 6:30 in the morning and I’m already sweating like a pig - a sod removal update
August 10th, 2007 
by Susan
You know what mud wrestlers look like, right? Well, we’ve got heat and drought here and the dirt is dry, so imagine, if you will, dust
wrestlers. Now you know what I look like every morning after an hour or so of sod removal in my back yard, the site of the excavation project. Legs covered in dirt - because it’s hot as hell and I’m wearing ragged cut-offs. Then there’s the huge amounts of sweat in which I’m drenched, and the damp frizzies that comprise my hairdo, and now you know why there’s no photo to document the gardener at work. Though it would be fun to have one, maybe to show people in the media what gardeners really look like when they’re gardening. Then they’d stop asking us to dress like we would for real gardening when we’re photographed, which is just never gonna happen anyway. We’re happy to shower up, dress casually, wield our pruners and show off the garden, though, any time.
But back to the project, the removal of about 500 square feet of sod that I wrote about elsewhere. I’m out there at 6 or 6:15 every morning, when there’s barely enough light, and it’s too hot to work already but the project must move forward so I can get a bunch of plants in the ground. But gardeners know to pace themselves, and by 7:30 or so I’ve moved on to the essential job of keeping my plants from perishing in this drought. I see dead and dying plants everywhere I look and it’s pretty scary.
THE METHOD OF DESODIFICATION
With a flat-blade spade I slice under the sod or step on it to cut through the roots, covering an area of maybe 2×5 feet before stopping the cutting phase. Then, on my knees, I take my favorite pointy trowel and lift-and-pull the chunk of soil, then slap it smartly across the dirt side with the edge of the trowel to break off the chunks of dirt, then shake it and throw it in the bucket for a trip to the compost pile. And man, there’s nothing like sod to make some damn good compost out of the huge pile of dead leaves down in the woods.
CHANGE OF PLANS
If you read the story I linked to about this project you know I thought I could just cover the lawn with newspaper and mulch, wait two months and start planting in the newly improved soil. Thank gawd, some smart commenters gave me the reality check that it takes a LOT longer than 2 months for all that sod to decompose, and other commenters suggested I NOT replace the whole 1,000-sq lawn all at once. So I’m removing half the lawn - the half with really crappy, spotty grass - and doing it the old-fashioned way, working up a good sweat in the bargain. And for all my complaining about the heat, I love doing it because it’s for the project and I’m just happy to have one.
Low maintenance gardening? Not for this addict.
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August 10th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Wow, I feel your pain; having tried that on a smaller scale. At least it’s not zoysia- that’s like cutting wire!! Keep up the good work; the heat is supposed to moderate!
August 10th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
That’s pretty much how I remove sod, though instead of a small trowel, I use a hand digging hoe. I can move quickly but as you noted it is hard, dirty, sweaty work. But I think you’ll be happy with the end product.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
August 10th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
This post made me very happy. No tricks, no rules, no waiting months. Just hard work. A puritan’s delight. (and this is why you stay so young looking by the way.)
August 13th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I like good, sweaty work as much as the next person, but when I last did that, I rented a sod cutter… Vrooom!
August 14th, 2007 at 12:38 am
I have been reading through blogs tonight and this is at least the 4th recent post I’ve seen where people are removing grass or talking about it. I know a short drive through the WNY burbs will depress me once again, but at least bloggers seem to be riding this wave.
Good for you–and my friend was complaining about doing it with a rototiller.
August 14th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I didn’t know garden coaches did this kind of hard labor. Will you come over and coach my yard next?
August 15th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Argh, my sympathetically aching back. Two years in a row I’ve torn grass out of the ground to make garden beds. I tried to get through it as fast as I could (3-4 hours at a time) and wound up hugging the aspirin bottle for dear life.
By far the most important lesson of all, however, was to not open my mouth to curse the agrarian revolution while the dirt particles were flying.
If it’s any consolation, the garden designer we consulted about the slope at the front of the yard said that a rototiller doesn’t really help — it just pushes the grass underground, and it can come back in a big way — and it destroys soil structure, which isn’t good for new plants.
August 15th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
It absolutely takes more than 2 months in the newspaper/mulch/wait way to creating less grass. I start six months out on big projects — I’ll be ready to plant in the latest one in September. That said, I still find myself expanding beds “just a little” all the time. My son really appreciates the reduction in grass — and even helps dig it up so he won’t have to keep mowing it.
August 21st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Sod busting is back breaking work and i”ve done way more than my share of it - enough to say ‘never again.’ You can start right away with the newspaper-layer-mulch method by spreading out your layers - then coming in and planting into it - just cut an X thru the paper and put your new things in. This worked very well for me putting in lavendars on my 90-degree slope which was a bugger to mow.
If what you are seeking is to replace lawn with an instant new groundcover - this method may not be for you - depending on how long you want to wait for it to fill in and how many groundcover plugs you are working with.