A sodcutter makes a real clean grass scalp. Most are adjustable from
1.5" to 3.5". After you removed the turf you could decide on tilling the
bare soil. Something you could do is cover this freshly uncovered soil
with hardwood mulch and let it overwinter. Or start using it immediately
for food production if your needs reqire.

J. Kolenovsky

Doug Kanter wrote:
=

Many years ago, when I was digging my first vegetable garden, I rented =
a
rototiller to remove the lawn and ended up regretting it. The machine
inverted clumps of grass which still had to be overturned by hand in or=
der
shake off the useful soil. If (in a fantasy world), it had NEATLY overt=
urned
them exactly 180 degrees so the grass simply died, that would've been g=
reat,
but it was a fairly random mess. I ended up finishing the thing by hand=
,
which wasn't TOO awful, since I'd just bought a really nice spade & for=
k.
=

At my new house, I'm about to create another vegetable garden. Again, I=
have
excellent tools, but I'm wondering about renting a tiller, since I'm de=
aling
with a 20x40 foot area. However, I'd like to avoid the same mess. Was t=
he
previous fiasco due to the type of tiller, the way I used it, the posit=
ion
of the moon, or what? Combination of all factors?

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business. Quoted by the Ho=
uston
Chronicle Lazy Gardener as 1 of 7 best gardening websites in Houston.
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal