If there's sand just a few inches down, you're not going to have forked root veggies. Heavy clay would be another story.

You haven't told us what kind of topsoil you have, but given how thin it is, I wouldn't remove the sod. Turn it over, dig it in, maybe cover with newspaper before adding material on top, but don't waste it.

Finally, what you're adding on top: if you use only compost and leaf mold, it won't make an ideal growing environment.

Maybe you want to strip off the sod, dig out remaining topsoil, dump the sod at the bottom, blend in compost with the remaining topsoil and put the mixture on top. That will help make sure the grass is good and dead under there while giving you a soil/compost blend to plant in on top. Might be a lot of work though.

When I started my garden I just tilled some compost into the grass with a big riding tiller. The grass fought back in a few spots but only because it was very aggressive fescue. You could just turn the whole thing over and not worry about putting the sod at the bottom.

Thanks for the response! My topsoil is loamy, dark, fantastic looking. It is about 10 inches deep, the depth of the spade. Is that considered "thin"? I thought it was a pretty good start.

You say just compost and leaf mold won't make an ideal growing environment, do you mean alone or mixed with the existing topsoil?

Hi there. My newer vegetable garden is where we used to have lawn. If you have the time and energy, I'd do what toxcrusadr said in paragraph 4.

I dug out my sod, double dug the whole thing by hand, added a bit of compost, and planted. During the growing season I used a thin layer of chopped dry leaves as mulch. In the fall I cover the works with a layer of chopped leaves and grass, and it's pretty much gone by spring.

I'm extremely happy with my results.

are you considering raised beds? they will solve lots of problems.

see our presentations:

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden

Liolia, the national soil survey has a great interactive tool that allows you to plot your exact location and get the soil series, which then gives you extensive soil description.

A very dark color is a good indication of high SOM which indicates a high percentage of silt/clay, which is good. I recently started a garden in central MA which is a similar situation to what you describe, ten inches of very good-looking black soil over sand, so good moisture retention yet sufficient drainage to prevent drowning. To early to tell results.

New england generally has acidic soils, so that is likely in your case, though if the SOM is fairly high then it will not be as acidic as a sandy soil. It takes time to lower acidity whether via lime or wood-ash, though the latter is quicker. Otherwise the ph can be changed by importing a large volume of less acidic material (normally some kind of compost), which is obviously a lot of labor, and expensive.

>>You say just compost and leaf mold won't make an ideal growing environment, do you mean alone or mixed with the existing topsoil?

I meant that compost should be mixed into the soil, rather than growing in a bed of only compost.

10" of nice dark loam is enviable! I would give anything for soil like that. Sorry I called it 'thin'. :-]