Removing Sod
Unless you truly enjoy mowing in circles around everything you plant or cropping with scissors, you’ll want to remove some sod to create a bed or a path. Removing sod can be as easy or as difficult as you choose to make it.
Living in a city, as you might, it pays to be sensible to neighbors’ eagle eyes, which can be absolutely as condemning as the Spanish Inquisition. This approach has led - several times!!! - to conversion of “Spanish Inquisition” types in my city neighborhood. That’s not easy for them, don’t expect it, and give great and heartfelt love to any who manage to cross that bridge (whatever happens - don’t condemn them. They are entitled to their opinions. Give them love, no matter what. Truly, they might be just like your Granny.
Once you’ve removed the sod, you can make an “Earth Bed” - which is simply an area where you plant trees, shrubs, and ground covers instead of lawn. You can also plant vegetables and favorite flowers, whatever - the point is to make an area to allow as many trees and shrubs as you can fit into it while reducing your mowing chores.
This process can also be used to make paths if you’d like one.
Difficult - dig it all out and compost what’s dug. Make sure to backfill the dug area with clean soil or gravel or something, as water will pool there in rains. Make sure to backfill - mosquitoes will love it if you don’t, and you just might drown tender trees who would essentially be living in a sump.
Easy - Apply, in one fashion or another, what’s called “smothering mulch.”
“Smothering mulch” is exactly that; it smothers what’s underneath, leaving clear soil. It takes more time to remove the sod than the dig-happy approach, but it’s much easier on you, and very likely much better for the soil, which is what all your plants grow in.
There are all sorts of smothering mulches. Basically, if it’s heavy enough nothing can grow through it, it’s a smothering mulch. I would avoid concrete blocks and rusting old cars, but maybe that’s me.
Smothering mulches, all discussed in detail further on:
Newspaper - remember these?
Leaves - unbelievably good, discussion below
Black plastic - it’s plastic. Heard anything about plastic?
Solarizing plastic - still plastic
Landscape fabric - discussed below. It sounds so good…
Wood mulch - good stuff. Not so very great with weeds.
Cardboard - good stuff. Might have some tape on it
Compost - GREAT STUFF. Weeds love it.
Old carpet - oddly good. Just hard to find and remove.
Straw - thick enough, a very good mulch.
Hay - RUN AWAY!!!! RUN AWAY!!!! (Seeds..must I say more?)
The list of possible mulches is extremely long. What we’re interested in is a mulch that does the job while improving soil and isn’t horrific to clean up once it’s killed the sod.
Enter…
Cardboard. Newspaper. Shredded paper products (in massive amounts). Leaves. Grass clippings. And so on.
My favorite, in these “post COVID” days, is cardboard. It comes with every online order. It’s annoying to pack up and get to the recycling center, or even just the end of the driveway…BUT it makes an absolutely fabulous smothering mulch, all for “free”.
A great plan that I’ve used over and over that even neighbors like:
First - Figure the area that you want to create an “Earth bed” in.
Second - Collect the materials you need to create your “Earth bed”.
Third - Lay them all down, in this order.
The Smotherer. Cardboard, newspaper, incredible amounts of shredded paper, ditto lawn clippings, black plastic (ugh!), etc.
Place “the smotherer” over the entire area you’d like to get rid of sod in.
Place good looking mulch over the top. Good looking is up to you; I don’t recommend gravel, except for a path, but you can use it. Most folks love wood mulch, but all sorts of mulches are good here. You can, if you’re careful, plant right in to the new Earth Bed.
Sit back and wait. A season of wait is just expected; killing back sod takes time, and, if planted with favorites too soon, the sod will just spring back to life as though nothing had happened and you’ll spend your life weeding around anything you might actually want to grow.
Plant all sorts of marvelous native species plants. Water as necessary.
Enjoy the show! Butterflies. Birds. Enjoy, you deserve it.
Mulches - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Newspaper - If you happen to get a newspaper, collect them up and use them freely. You’ll need to put down at least 6 sheets at once (use a section) to get good weed/sod coverage. Then place wood mulch, or pine needle mulch, whatever floats your boat, on top. It’s best to soak the paper and the mulch quite thoroughly; newspaper is dry and can lift and blow in the wind otherwise.
Remember to keep the mulch back at least 6” from any trunk of a tree or stem of a shrub. Smothering mulch smothers. Let’s save the trees!
Leaves - Leaves are fantastic as a smothering mulch. Use plenty, and remember to move them back at least 6” from any trunk of a tree or stem of a shrub. You can place other mulch over the top of leaves if you like, but take great care if there are nearby trees, shrubs, etc. Mulch too deep (more than 6”) can kill roots of trees, not just the sod you’re trying to kill. Remember that leaves compact down, so if they’re fluffy, and more than 6”, you can let them sit. We don’t want compacted mulch too deep.
Leaves will “self-mulch” areas for you every fall if you wish. You’ll have fabulous soil!
Solarizing Plastic - Solarizing plastic is clear plastic laid on the ground instead of over frames to create a greenhouse; laid on the ground it creates heat that transfers directly to the soil beneath. This can do a wonderful job of killing back sod! It also kills bacteria, which could be pathogens to your plants. Farmers like this a lot.
If you choose to use solarizing plastic, ensure that the soil is moist when you apply the plastic and leave it on throughout the hottest months.
Care must be taken after rains, as water can puddle on plastic creating a marvelous spot for mosquito breeding.
I recommend heavy applications of compost once you remove the plastic as the heat is likely to kill the very bacteria and fungi which your plants need in order to obtain nutrition from the soil.
No matter what, you will need to remove the plastic eventually - even farmers do. More plastic in the landfill. Ugh.
Black Plastic - Black plastic can be used to good effect. Black plastic isn’t effective as a solarizer, but it is quite effective for killing back sod.
You have to be careful. The plastic will block water from sinking into the soil, drying it out, and - possibly - making nice little pools for eager mosquitoes.
If you put a good looking mulch on top it will look better, but the plastic will still allow water to pool, or, if there’s a slope, allow it to run, taking the mulch along with it.
As always, keep the plastic at least 6” away from any trunk or stem. Realistically, don’t use it near trees or shrubs you’d like to keep.
Plastic should be removed once its job is done.
What are you going to do with all that plastic?
Cardboard - Cardboard works brilliantly as a smothering mulch. Like any other smothering mulch, keep it back from trunks and stems of plants you’d like to keep. You absolutely want a better looking mulch to place over top of it; it’s pretty ugly on its own and it dries out, too, making it a fabulous toy for a spritely wind that will relocate it for you.
It’s not as good as leaves for creating great soil, but it’s good; if you allow the area to collect leaves every fall, you will soon have tremendous soil and very, very, happy plants.
Wood Mulch - Wood mulch is not a great smothering mulch. It’s hard to get it deep enough to smother, and, if you do, it will rot quite thoroughly, which can create some nasty chemicals you really don’t want in your garden, thus wrecking the soil. Wood mulch is fabulous placed lightly over leaves, newspaper, cardboard, or other good smothering mulch. As always - keep it back from trunks and stems.
Compost - Compost is a fabulous mulch and a terrible smothering mulch. Weeds love compost as much as any other plant and they’ll thrive. The sod probably will, too.
Place compost over top of another good smothering mulch you don’t plant to remove or just place it after the sod has been killed back when you’re planting the area.
Straw - Straw, used by the bale, is a great smothering mulch. That gets expensive quickly! Used less liberally, it’s a great mulch, but it’s not a good smothering mulch unless it’s incredibly thick. Think about it - when the builder sows grass seed, quite often a thin layer of straw is placed over it to hold the soil while the grass grows.
Straw is the mulch of choice for many public rose gardens. It’s nice, but unless you, too, have an army of volunteers to weed, perhaps stick with another smothering mulch.
Hay - Keep hay away from your yard, period. It’s full of seeds, and they’re not the seeds you want.
Old Carpet - If you have it, you can use it as a smothering mulch. I know people who swear by it, particularly to kill some invasive nasty plants, but it can get really ugly in the long run. Seeds can grow from the top through it, so you’ll have to remove it eventually anyway. I’m not a fan, but I know people who are.
Landscape Fabric - It sounds so good. Keeps back weeds, lets air and water through to the soil, what’s not to love? As with old carpets, seeds can sprout on top of it. It also doesn’t kill seeds below, and sooner or later they’ll sprout and grow right through the fabric. Likely you’ll love it for a year or two, but then…
Try to weed an area with landscape fabric. I dare you. Double dare you.
This is the voice of harsh, very harsh, experience! Oh, it gets nasty quick.
Friends don’t let friends put down landscape fabric.