Useful Ramblings

In March of 2006 I decided that the sod in the backyard was in need of replacement. It had layered to the point where is was almost impossible to get a lawnmower through it. I decided then that I could handle the job of removing the sod. I soon learned that I had underestimated the amount of effort to accomplish such a task. But being male I could not admit nor allow myself to be conquered. So my journey began. Remember this is March. The picture to the left shows about 1/3 of the sod removed with new plugs planted. This picture is around the July time frame. Note that additional sod was removed to the left but nothing planted. There is still a signifcant amount of grass remaining, but I had to wait for the roots to die out thereby allowing for easier removal. This picture is from another perspective. Notice that the dead sod is piling up. What became apparant early on was where to store the piles of dead sod. I decided to move it to the west side of the house. There I could “pile it high and deep” while loading 96 gallon yard waste containers. The amount of dead sod in the right picutre required about 4 weeks to dispose of using the 96 gallon containers. The disposal process sort of dictacted the rate at which the dead sod was cut out. Bye the middle of August (below) the removal of the old sod was complete. What remained now was the process of grading and planting new grass. I elected to use grass plugs. They would eventually knit together and produce a “finished” product, assuming the various strains of weeds did not over take the yard first. For slide show of this effort click here.