garden prep advice, please

I plan on no-till after the initial prep...

We got the rental sod cutter yesterday and it was a sh(one)t show. There was no way I was going to be able to operate it. I'm 4'10 and less than 100lb. So, my husband dutifully stepped in. But he had SO MUCH trouble operating it. It kept starting and spluttering to a stop. There was light rain. He got super frustrated. He did end up almost finishing a plot 15'X15' before he gave up. It took 4 hours.Is it supposed to be that hard? It has been a dry year...so could that contribute to the sod cutter not working so well?  A landscaper friend said that it would be like slicing through butter with a sod cutter. I had planned on getting a tiller to till it after cutting the sod.

The question is: Is there another(easier) way I can dig up that sod?  I could go back to the lasagna method... Because my husband is DONE with the sod cutter.  I was planning to dig up the sod to the whole yard and till it ONLY ONCE, to loosen the soil to give plants an easier start. I plan on no-till. We've done the lasagna method before but it uses cardboard and I thought I'd try to avoid cardboard this time 'round .

Also, he wanted to throw away the sod. Said that there would be weed seeds. But I wanted to keep it, turn it grass side down, put soil/compost on top of it and grow in that soil. Is that a bad idea. I'm sure I read about how people dig swales pile the sod to one side and use it for growing. I could put it in my compost heap. It is severely lacking in greens as I kept it going all winter and piled loads of fall leaves after each drop of kitchen scraps.

Hi Monica,
No, it should not be that hard to use. Either the adjustment was way off on how deep of a cut... or else you got a bad one from the rental company. I have used one before and it was not too bad. Slow, but certainly not what you describe.

Another option is to rototill the whole section. But that can be brutal as well, as they tend to bounce around a lot while trying to get through the initial sod. Something commercial grade like a BCS or some tractor attachment wouldn't be as big a deal.

I regularly use your method of flipping the sod over and planting in that soil... though only at a smaller scale.  

Don't give up, but also be wary of biting off more than you can chew. Starting a new garden spot is awesome, but also hard. It either takes a long time or a lot of hard work. Sometimes both :), but it is worth it in my opinion.

I suspect the dryness may be a factor. It makes the roots tougher to cut, and they move around rather than holding tight, so it's hard to slice them.

In the past, I converted sod to garden using a 16hp garden tractor with rototiller. First, scalp the lawn with a mower set super low. Then make multiple passes with the tiller; it chews up the sod quite nicely. You don't have to go deep if you don't want to -- about 3" or so is usually enough. You'll have to clean up some loose grass and whack any survivors with a sharp shovel, but that's manageable.

You can hire someone with a small tractor to do the initial till for a pretty reasonable fee. Just be crystal clear in communicating how deep you want to go.

However you choose to do it, the sod is still a resource even if you simply compost it.

I've been considering smothering the grass with a 6"layer of leaves and then compost/soil on top (6"?). Would that work? Would the leaves underneath become a matted, slimy mess?  I've stockpiled a ton of leaves, and the leaves at the bottom of a 3ft pile, open to the air was looking black and wet, whilst the stuff on top was as unchanged from the fall.

Hi Monica,
Generally speaking you want the least decomposed stuff on the top. There are exceptions, but generally speaking the soil would go down first and then the leaves. Depending on your grass, 6" of compost could probably kill it... especially if you scalped it first. I would then compost the leaves for a season or so. This will start them breaking down and make them less likely to blow away without needing to add some straw or woodchips to counter the wind. Or maybe just shred the leaves first to help them break down faster and be less likely to blow away and put them on top of the compost as a mulch. Then when you go to plant, move aside the leaves and plant in the compost.

I would try and keep the soil if at all possible. That will contain all the roots and shoots - so much of the carbon and humous of the soil. One way to reduce the potential weed burden is to stack the turf separately for a year or so for the organic matter to decompose and you will have lovely loam for your seed starting. There may still be weed seeds in it, but many have reduced viability after even a year. If it has been a lawn for a while, there are unlikely to be many seeds, since lawns don't tend to be left to flower.

(which is a pity)

Monica, how big is the total area you want to convert to garden? Were you hoping to plant this year?

Smothering will work if it's deep enough. Covering a large area with soil/compost means bringing it in by the truckload.

The challenge with our dry climate and short growing season is that it takes a long time for leaves and sod to break down without mechanical intervention (by hand or machine).