If you can't find one of those try a "goofy spoon" or a spade. When working this area, especially at this time of year wear a mask so you don't inhale too much roadside dust, which can contain asbestos or lead. (If dogs have used this area for years I wouldn't want to take in their dust either).

Any good rental store should have them.

We got ours from Home Depot. We did our whole parking strip in about three hours. But we did it this time of year and it was unbearably hot and the sod was unbearably tough. If there is any way you can wait till the rains start again, you would find it much easier. But if you have to do it, you have to do it! :)

Lenny, if you've got some soil to put on top, consider putting a layer of newspaper on top of the sod, then a layer of soil/compost/manure. The grass will just decompose as will the newspaper. You'll have to add humus anyway to your area. This way its a lot less work and you'll have rich, loamy soil in a season. Since I garden on fractured stone and have no soil to speak of, both of my veggie plots, and all of my flower borders were constructed in this fashion. We dig a neat edge around each bed so it looks tidy.

Removing it may do you good. Often there is a compaction layer down just a half inch to an inch, that sod cutting can get rid of in case you don't rototill.

That's the weak area of lasagna gardening, in that compaction layers are buried - not dealt with.

It won't break your account, but sod is often more per cubic yard to dump - as high as $20 per cubic yard. Not everywhere.

I'll second Madrone's method. We mowed it short, then used 6 layers of newspaper and 6" of pure compost. I tend to think the compaction concern is more of a theoretical problem and not a weakness at all. Taproots can still penetrate native hardpans, which are far more compacted, and 6" of compost gives them a bountiful layer for feeder roots. The most robust gardens we've ever had were in the house we did this to several new beds. The plants noticeably took off much better than we've ever had, right after we planted these. The plants were also much more drought resistant in the summer with compost.

After working at 6 Portland golf courses and country clubs, and 2 university campus landscape crews, I'd say that compaction is a reality, and a theoretical issue only to people who haven't studied soil science in depth.

That's basically what a lot of aeration is all about for lawns.

Foot traffic from mowing, and pets walking, kids running etc., compress soil particles together. Water lubricates soil particles, and compaction is worse in wet climates. Then when soil compacts, it traps water longer, keeping particles lubricated longer, increasing the compaction issue even worse.

Compaction is one of the worst problems to deal with in lawns, even new sod, which happens to have a lot of clay content.

Sanding makes it even worse, since under a microscope, sand is like putting a school bus size boulder over a bunch of playing card size particles.

I'm sorry Mdvaden, I didn't mean that compaction doesn't exist, only that it's not a real problem for this form of lasgne bed. You certainly have some nice lawn mowing experience, but have you ever tried one of these beds? Have you ever even talked to a real person that has had one fail? I've never heard of a real person who had one of these beds that didn't thrive, but I know several, including myself, who have had amazing success.
We've got to be careful not to just assume that because over-fertilized grass has a compaction problem that the same problem will carry straight across to flower beds or vegetable gardens with 6" of compost. That wouldn't be anything close to soil science. :)
-Tom

You are right about that - many times the lasagna style works great.

The compaction is generally much more prevelant in lawns, than it beds. Its due to the years and years of lawn mowing and foot traffic. Beds rarely get as much traffic, and it seems that the worms and stuff can counteract it often.

The worse lawns, are ones that stay relatively moist, with substantial irrigation in summer. The lawns with the least compaction problems are often the ones not irrigated in summer - minimal mowing - as well when a bagging mower is not used. Bagging mowers, when filled with we clippings, move the fulcrum of weight from the engine as center of gravity, to the rear wheels as the bag fills with heavy wet grass. Instead of just the mower weight spread over 4 wheels, a full bag results in the combined weight of the mower plus the bag weight distributed to mainly just the two rear wheels. That weight compresses the soil over a number of years.

It mainly depends on the lawn. Actually, its sort of a sneaky problem.

I had a friend in Aloha, Oregon, who called me over to his home for advice some years back. Surprisingly, he didn't figure out his situation, because his degree was in forestry - very closely related. Anyhow, he had standing water in his front lawn, which was mushy and soup-like to mow. He had two separate "expert" drainage installers come out, and both of them told him he had a "high water table".

The first thing I pointed out to my friend, were there quite old groves of Oregon oaks and Ponderosa pines in his front and back yards. They were the evidence that no high water table existed. And with a creek 2000 feet away, with the water level 6 feet to 8 feet below the yard's soil surface, that was clue number two. So I told him that he merely had a compaction problem in the upper one or two inches of his mushy, puddled front and read lawns.

We stripped the sod, added an inch of coarse compost, a bit of lime, and rototilled the top few inches, then re-sodded the lawn.

In a few weeks, he started having gatherings at his house almost every couple of weeks, with lots of friends, children and groups from his church.

No more mush, no standing water.

It can be a sneaky problem.

Its about as sneaky as damage to lawns and landscaping from the new energy efficient heat reflective windows. It's just not in the mainstream writings and garden show stuff like pruning roses.

And again, it just depends on the yard. Some garden beds are free of that condition, and lend themselves very well to just laying compost or the lasagna style approach.

(Reminds me of the guy in the movie Mr. Deeds who says "you underestimate the sneakiness")

That's good info on lawns Mdvaden, thanks. :)
It doesn't apply to this kind lasgne bed though. You're still just making a wild guess that since compaction can be a problem for lawns, then this sysytem must not be able to handle it either. That's just not the case.
One partial reason is worms. 6" of compost attracts them & breeds them by the kajillions. The little rototillers will blur that line between old and new, and blow through that top compacted layer like it wasn't there.
Another is compost's amazing ability to hold so much more water yet still maintain sufficient oxygen levels.
Another reason is that whatever you plant there is going to have far, far deeper root systems than short shorn grass. The top 6" of compost is enough to let the plants thrive while the taproots and roots of the bigger plants work along with the worms to demolish the compacted layer over time.
The system works. :)