"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

If you till the grass, you won't kill it. You'll just chop it into a
million pieces and much of it will grow back quickly. You can try and pick
it out, but that's crazy.

Actually the sod that's chopped up doesn't grow back, *new* "weeds" grow
back, and grow back constantly unless properly mulched... in my veggie
garden I use mulching cloth around the plants and corrogated cardborad for
walking paths. I leave the cloth and cardboard all winter or lots more
weeds will grow at the end of fall and early spring. In about two weeks
I'll be rolling up the cloth to reuse and will till the whole thing, old
cardboard too... I have plenty of new cardboard saved.

The absolute best way is to slice the turf into manageable
pieces and then slice under it to remove it. At that point, it's best to
shake/chop/curse off the excellent soil that clings to the roots. Imagine
how much fun that is for a large area.

I just spade out clumps about 8" deep. Flipped root up on a sunny day the
soil will dry well enough in two hours to crumble with gloved hands... I
place the clods on a heavy plastic tarp to dry, then crumble into a
wheelbarrow (easier on the back). Once I have a mountain of de-soiled sod I
hose it off to remove the last bits, then into the composter with only
vegetable matter, why fill the composter with soil. I fill 5 gallon
contractor buckets with stones as I go, I rinse the top soil from those too
before dumping the stones into the creek. It's surprising how much one can
accomplish in a short time when using a system. I use the same system every
time I dig a 5-6 foot diameter hole to plant a tree/shrub. That's the only
time I add purchased top soil for what's lost in the digging and from
rocks... I'd rather not dig holes in my wooded areas for fill. The top soil
I buy is from a local guy who specializes in dredging lakes and ponds,
excellent black gold. There are many livestock farms very close by where I
can get manure for free, but it's not composted so I'd rather buy bagged. I
don't need to fertilize my lawn, the deer and Canada geese do an excellent
job.