Turning Sod Into Garden Soil

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Saving Your Back

There is yet another great way to turn sod to garden. Sod is a complex mat of growing things. It is mostly grasses, but there are most likely a variety of other weeds as well. This living mass will not give up life easily. There will be plenty of seeds there to repopulate the area in just such an event as tilling. Some of the grasses can prop agate from bits of root and some have such a dense mass of roots that they will hold onto enough soil to continue living. When we try to turn sod to soil we are trying to kill the plants that are living there naturally, so that the plants we want to grow can survive. Mashing, chopping and uprooting is one way to get rid of them. Another way is to smother them.

That sounds rather drastic but it is probably the gentlest way to make the conversion. It requires planning ahead. The summer or fall before planting, cover the area that is to be your garden with a thick layer of mulch. Mow the area first. If you are mowing foot-high grass, you will get enough clippings to cover about one fifth of the area. Cover the rest with spoiled hay, leaves or straw. If you really want to get things cooking, spread manure before mulching. In the spring you will have a good start on preparing the garden soil. Transplants and larger seeds can be planted by pulling back the mulch just enough to get the job done. For small seeds you will probably want to rake the mulch off and prepare a bed. A spading fork will do a great job of turning this soil. It won't need to be cut like sod. The fork will do its job with one thrust, in most instances, just as it will in an established garden. A garden rake will finish the job of preparing the bed.

Here's a way to prepare for a larger garden next year while using the mulch area this year. Let's say you are planning your first garden this year and you take my advice and start small, with 400 square feet. Let's say that you have more area that you want to make into a garden and you are dying to get at it. You also have more things you want to plant than you can possibly fit into a 400 square foot garden.

We've provided photographs of this process on pages 52 and 53, so flip back if you get lost. First, mow the area where you will be expanding next year. Dig up an area a foot or two in diameter in the center of a five-foot by five-foot area.

Separate the roots from the soil and pulverize the soil with your hands to prepare a seed bed. If the soil is growing vigorous grass it will probably support a change in crop for the first year, but you might want to add compost. Rake the grass clippings up close to this dug-up area, and plant cucumbers in it. The 25 square feet of area provided for the cucumbers to grow onto should provide enough grass clip pings to mulch a foot-wide ring of mulch around the planting. Winter squash and pumpkins need a ten foot by ten foot square and summer squash can get by with a three or four foot to the side square.

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