sod removal...

...is back-breaking, laborious, evil work. But oh so necessary. Waging war on the front lawn filled most of the morning and afternoon today. Warm spring sunshine helps. First the cardboard is removed, then the sod is sliced into manageable sections measuring approximately 2' x 3' using an edging tool. Next a flat shovel is utilized to begin scraping the sod sections and accompanying roots and as little soil as is possible. No easy task, but excess soil can be sifted from the sod sections after its removal. If the sod is kept all in one piece it can (more) easily be rolled as it's being scraped up. The strips are inverted and laid from whence they came so that the majority of the soil can be broken free from the grass roots before returning it to the future vegetable bed. For this task we use a delightfully named tool called a "garden weasel," which is essentially a hand-powered roto-tiller. The next steps are to determine where the sod will be composted and to amend the soil with copious amounts of compost and minerals including limestone, gypsum, greensand, and phosphate. Seeding and transplanting to follow shortly!