Busting Sod

"Those of you who have ever tilled a new garden spot without first removing the sod know exactly what I'm talking about," master gardener Paul James says.

Many gardeners prefer to spray a nonselective herbicide over the area to kill everything green. Make sure you cover any plants you don't want to kill because even a small amount of spray that comes in contact with leaf surfaces will spell disaster for those plants. You'll have to wait two to 10 days for the herbicide to take effect. Also, herbicides won't kill dormant weed seeds, the bulk of which lie just a few inches below the soil surface. For that reason you'll want to remove the sod, whether dead or alive. Either way, you'll still have a few weeds here and there, but they'll be less numerous than if you simply waited for the herbicide to do its thing and then started tilling.

You may also prepare a new garden spot by placing several layers of newspaper over the grass and covering it with a thick layer of leaves or mulch to kill the grass. That approach works great, but it takes several months to a year to kill the grass.

After you've stripped your new garden spot clean of sod, get rid of any roots and rocks lying around, tidy up the borders, add a little compost over the area, and work it into the top six inches of soil with a tiller. Level the soil with a rake.

At this point you could go ahead and plant, but disturbing the soil has unearthed many weed seeds that are now ready to germinate. Water the area well and wait a week, at which time those weeds will have sprouted, and you can easily get rid of them with a hoe or your hand. Repeat the procedure one more time, and you'll have eliminated most of the weeds.