jvdubb said:Part of my conundrum is that the 7 yards of dirt will determine the size of the bed! I have no idea how big that will be. 
Hi Jennifer -- a "yard" of dirt is actually a "cubic yard," which is 27 cubic feet; so 7 yards would be 189 cubic feet. If you wanted to make one planting bed that was 4 feet wide and filled with a foot of soil, you would have a bed approximately 47 feet long (a bed filled to a depth of 18 inches would be about 31 feet long).
I would opt for spraying the sod with Roundup rather than removing all of that organic material, and/or covering it with corrugated cardboard (or a thick layer of newspaper).
Hope that helps a little!
