Hello,

I just bought a 400 square foot gardening plot in a local park district (looking to turn it into a vegetable garden), and as of now the plot is full of grass. I'll be removing the sod soon, and I wasn't sure what I should do with it, and that's when I heard of sod composting. It sounds like you can place the sod upside-down in layers (called "lasagna gardening") with layers of composting material inbetween.

The problem here is that people recommend doing this months in advance so that the sod has time to warm up and really compost, and I'd want to plant right away (June will be here in just a week). So my question is, when I'm making my rows to plant in, could I remove the sod, place it grass side down, add bags of compost and fresh soil over it, and start planting right away?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

I don't know what the correct way is but my dad always just used a flat shovel, slid it under the sod, flipped the sod over and planted with no additions other than to put some peat moss, cow manure and limestone into each planting hole. It worked just fine for him. Good luck with your new garden and please share photos as you proceed. Thanks.

mjgarden said:Hello,

I just bought a 400 square foot gardening plot in a local park district (looking to turn it into a vegetable garden), and as of now the plot is full of grass. I'll be removing the sod soon, and I wasn't sure what I should do with it, and that's when I heard of sod composting. It sounds like you can place the sod upside-down in layers (called "lasagna gardening") with layers of composting material inbetween.

The problem here is that people recommend doing this months in advance so that the sod has time to warm up and really compost, and I'd want to plant right away (June will be here in just a week).

So my question is, when I'm making my rows to plant in, could I remove the sod, place it grass side down, add bags of compost and fresh soil over it, and start planting right away?

I wouldn't even try.

agree that starting a new bed takes months.

since you waited this long, I'd dig up the sod and put it elsewhere.

some people like to pile the sod squares in the woods.

glad to hear about the new garden... I suggest researching what type of grass you are dealing with.

mjgarden said:Hello,

I just bought a 400 square foot gardening plot in a local park district (looking to turn it into a vegetable garden), and as of now the plot is full of grass. I'll be removing the sod soon, and I wasn't sure what I should do with it, and that's when I heard of sod composting. It sounds like you can place the sod upside-down in layers (called "lasagna gardening") with layers of composting material inbetween.

The problem here is that people recommend doing this months in advance so that the sod has time to warm up and really compost, and I'd want to plant right away (June will be here in just a week). So my question is, when I'm making my rows to plant in, could I remove the sod, place it grass side down, add bags of compost and fresh soil over it, and start planting right away?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

If you are using a sod cutter, just roll it up grass side in and stack it out of the way some where.
It will turn into a pile of soil with a littel grass growing on the out side but most of it will simplly be soil you can use at a later date.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I think I might just follow greene's advice and flip the sod over and plant over it. I don't have any fancy machinery or cutters (just a shovel) and I have nowhere to put 400 square feet of sod. Might as well use it if I can, and buy manure and limestone like greene said, and cross my fingers.

You can rent a manual sod cutter for a very reasonable fee per day, I have found that sod takes a long time to break down.

@mjgarden 😀
It's important that you/we know what types of grass's you have. If you have something like Bermuda that grows stolens under ground. Your going to have to handle things very differently.
Let us know before you proceed.
😎😎😎

I have no idea what kind of grass it is, nor do I know how to tell what kind it is. I'm brand new to this. All I know is that the plot I bought was probably not used last year, which is why it's covered in grass and not bare soil. Here's a picture of what the plot looks like.

Illinois is not likely to have Bermuda grass. Too far north...I think.

Most likely fescue or bluegrass.

MJ : swollen roots, are usually a sign of stolen type grass's, not just Bermuda grass !!!
If your grass doesn't have swollen roots. Proceed tuning grass over, and top coating with mulch, then compost.

If you want to be real safe 👍😀.
Ask one of your neighbors, what they did ???
I'm speaking, totally logically....
I'm a man, I can't help but be logical.


Ttfn. 😀
😎😎😎

Philip, that's a great idea! Thanks!

Welcome, Welcome !
Beats me, !!! Why I didn't think of it in the first place.
😎😎😎

Thanks for the picture!
Wish that you had included that in the first post...

Now that we can see what you have, we can see that you aren't trying to turn a lawn into a garden... which is what we were all thinking.

I wonder if you don't have something simple like annual rye, or timothy, or oats, or something else easy...

Try getting out there with a shovel and simply turn some.
you would find out real quick whether you were dealing with an annual or turf.

Alternatively... can't you just ask someone what kind of grass you have? there are other gardeners out there, I'm figuring...