We found our dream home and moved in mid Feb. Now that the snow is gone I relize that the previous owners weren't kidding when they said that they hadn't done anything with the yard. It's really just and old hay feild. How do I go about clearing the sod. I have to remove the sod and then put in raided beds. We have very heavy clay soil in this area. I read in Gardening Life that you could rent a sod cutter. Are they expensive? Do you need a tractor to use one? I'm hoping it wont be more dificult than wy weed wacker to use or I may have to hire someone to do it for me.
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Draw up a plan...consider where your gardens will be and note the sun/shade patterns. Do you need to replace any old shrubs trees and look at your front entrance. Once you have determined where your gardens will be...only remove the sod where you have to. Our sod cutter was rented for one day $98 and was a dream come true. We could set it at 2 1/2 " and were able to add that much good top soil and then the sod. I would do this in September rather than in the middle of summer. We laid ours in late May and even with all the rain, we must be watering all the time as the roots have not yet fully developed where they can take advantage of wet weather. Be aware that the sod you remove at that depth is very heavy. We also used a rotatiller which we considered using to chop up the existing lawn, however clay is a problem for us as well. After the sod lifter we rotatiled the exposed areas before adding good top soil and a granular starter fertilizer. We did the lawn first and gardens next. A good healthy lawn makes such a difference and worth the effort!
search on this forum for the post " Kill the grass" there is advise there.
Sod cutters are easy to operate - they kind of cut a strip, vertically, to a depth of an inch or so, and a foot or so wide, then you just roll up the sod. Why do that, though and waste all the good stuff there can be there, if you haven't much topsoil to start with? why not just flip the sod over and let it decay. I forget exactly the steps, but you can find them in any of Marjorie Harris's books, I think, but you just do that and then you can layer newspaper and compost on top and the next year you have a good organic base to start from. If you are building raised beds anyhow, I would do that, then turn the grass inside them and pile in your new soil/compost/triple mix or whatever you are going to use on top. For the areas in between beds, you could just leave the sod and cover it with mulch or straw or gravel or something for your paths in between. Could save a lot of work.