When I was a kid, when we started a garden in a new location or added to an existing garden, we took a garden fork and turned over the grass that was there. We always had a lot of grass growing among the vegetables the first year, so we'd spend time hoeing and hand pulling. We would also mulch heavily to try to keep the grass at bay.

50x50 seems pretty large to turn with a garden fork, though. If you're planning to lasagna garden next year, maybe you can just dig holes for plants and mulch around them, and only turn the areas where you plan to plant seeds. In the fall, you can smother the whole thing with cardboard and/or newspaper and start the lasagna layers.

There is no good reason to remove or turn over that sod, simply cover the area with newspaper and cover the newspaper with a mulch to hold the paper in place and hide the paper. When you can plant the frost tender stuff the grass will be dead and will be adding the nutrients the grass has back into the soil.

My husband and I have been going on the assumption that flipping over the sod is a great way to start a garden, but that in the following years, minimal tilling should be done. In a few years I'll be able to tell you what sorts of results we have had. :) His family has had great results with this approach in the past.

The area where we are starting a garden has six inches of good soil on top of sand and rock. We had two choices of garden: dig down or build up. Digging down is more labor-intensive, but we decided it would be worth it in the long run. So, we have been removing the sod and good soil, excavating between 6 and 12 inches of sand and rock, putting the sod back in the bottom of the hole, and then filling in on top with thirteen cubic yards of loam that we had delivered.

In another portion of the yard I am building raised beds instead of digging out the sand, which I opted to do for aesthetic reasons. (And because I had enough rocks from my husband's vegitable beds to build a low wall. And also because I'm getting sick of all the darn digging!)

In yet another corner of the yard, I am doing a lasagnia experiment. On top of a hill of excavated sand, I am building up layers of organic material. My hope is that by next year I'll be able to start planting there - but it's going to be as much work as the dug beds, by the time I've finished hauling and spreading layer after layer of after layer of leaves and stuff, and waiting for it to decompose.

I love your use of the word "experiment". I guess that is why I love doing this so much.

Well, we have all the cut and rolled. It wasn't that huge of a job. My son helped me, thank goodness.

Now that it's up, what are you going to do with the sod? In the event that you don't want it I would bet there is someone in your community who does.

I am putting down a layer of cardboard where the plots will be and flipping the sod back onto that. That's what I am doing today. Just taking a lunch break right now. Someone asked me why I didn't just till it. I might have asked myself that once or twice today.

I think you are right to not till it in. You might end up with grass growing in your plot again if you till it in. Throwing the sod on upside down on the cardboard is better than tilling it in.

Well, it has been a week since I broke ground on the garden. I have had lots of neighbors and friends suggesting how I could have done it better... roundup (eek!), till, not using the sod at all, not using the cardboard... etc, etc.

Despite the possibility that there could have been a better way to do this, it is looking pretty good. Lots of earth worms under the cardboard which is nice and soft where it is covered with soil. Most of the grass is dead or dying except some small pieced that were not flipped all the way over. It is actually looking good. It is going to rain any moment but at some point this week I hope to plant some of my cold hardy vegies.

Where were all of those wise neighbors when you were working out there? Roundup could work but your system gave instant gratification and a more sure start.

Tell your neighbors that there are many paths up the same mountain. :)

My garden survived the flood, mainly because I created raised beds by taking the topsoil from the paths and putting it on top of the sod I had flipped over on top of the beds.

With all the whispering of the neighbors and inquiring friends I endured in the beginning, no one is doubting my choices now. Thanks to the people on this forum, my new garden is doing amazingly well. I have never seen so many earthworms and the soil is so easy to work. My praises to newspaper, cardboard and hay!