I’ve removed sod a few different times: through suffocation (laying plastic on a plot until the turf dies); through roto-tilling; through manual removal. By far, I think the easiest and most satisfying is through manual removal. The suffocation method takes too long and is messy; roto-tilling is hard, trying to get the machine to chew through tough turf, and then there’s the back-breaking work of picking and raking the plot to remove sod clumps (and I never seem to get them all). Manual sod removal is quick, it’s easy, and you see instant results. After you remove the first 3-5 inches of sod, you can roto-till the soil.
The best time to “bust” sod, as I call it, is a day or two after rainfall. The soil is slightly moist and the sod will tear apart easily. However, if your soil is waterlogged, the task may be very messy and muddy. Don’t plan any summer garden wedding programs anytime soon!
Get a flat-end spade. Cut a long strip of any length, and about 1 foot wide. Then, chop the strip into 1 to 2 foot sections, for easy handling.
Work up one side of the strip with the spade. Your goal is to tear the root system out of the subsoil below. It’s important to get the roots out, or else the turf will grow back. My yard varies: in some places I need only dig 2 inches down to get past the roots; in other areas, it’s 4 inches.
Use the spade to hack horizontally into and under each square section.
Pull up the section. Dump it upside down, and chop off any loose subsoil and clumps. Loosen the dirt from the roots with your hands if you need to.
This is what the section looks like after we removed a few sections.
Hacking into the sod is probably the hardest part, but I love it because it is incredible exercise. It’s a little difficult to explain with text, so we made a quick video showing how to do this.
April 8, 2010
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