Removing Turf - How to...

Very often when putting new plants into the garden or planting up a new bed, tree, shrub etc. the first step is to remove some turf to make way for your new introductions. Removing existing turf is hard work, but if you follow this technique, it becomes easier than the way in which I've often seen people try to deal with it. The first thing to appreciate is that you don't need to dig down very far, grass is a greedy plant, but it does this by intercepting water and nutrients as they are added to the soil. there are some deep roots, but most of the plant is in the top couple of inches of the soil. So you only need to scrape away about an inch of soil to remove the grass completely, if you do this it won't be able to grow back again. Step one is to use a spade or lawn edger to cut through the grass a line that limits where the edge of your new bed is to be. You might be able to do this by eye as I am here, or you may want to use a straight edge or string and peg for circles. If you need to mark the grass out use flour, it's non-toxic and temporary, being brushed or watered in quickly.

Once you've marked the line by cutting through to about 2-3 inches down, insert the spade and then tilt it to cut forwards at a depth of about an inch under the soil. The spade should be turned to become flat. If you're right-handed, then your right hand on the spade handle will supply the effort to do this while your left hand steadies the spade. A series of short sharp back-and-forth jerks are most effective to get the spade cutting the soil and grass roots rather than a continuous force. What you want to avoid is digging great clods on earth up with a bit of grass on top, this is very hard work and removes large quantities of soil that you then have to do something with - and probably replace too.

Once the spade is horizontal, continue the stabbing motions to go further under the existing turf. Once the whole spade is under the turf and horizontal, use the "heel" of the spade - the part of the blade where it meets the handle - to keep it steady and determine the depth.

Ideally the soil should be fairly moist, not dry so it's hard, and not wet so it's sticky and difficult to force the spade through. You do need to be reasonably strong to remove turf this way, but if even if you're not, a small area for a tree or shrub can be stripped in a relatively short time - it's very important to cut the edge as in the first step, so that you get the edge to the area that you want.

When you've gone about one or two spade lengths under the turf, tilt the spade sideways or front to back to rip the turf you've separated and rip it off from the rest. Repeat until you've done it all. Removed turf - you'll have loads of this, pile it up out of the way somewhere with the grass side down, water it well with several watering cans worth and cover with old carpet or something and weight it down - bin bags at a pinch. In 6 months it will be ready to use as a mulch or to dig into the soil. The more grass in relation to soil you had the better.

Other methods:

Weedkiller - use a glyphosate containing weedkiller to kill grass in the area you want. Glyphosate is neutralised on contact with the soil and so what doesn't fall on plant leaves won't cause any damage. Make sure you DON'T USE PATH WEEDKILLER as this stays in the soil and carries on killing any plant life for months after application.

This will take 2-4 weeks depending on time of year and dead grass needs to be dug into the soil before planting up. I don't like this approach as it's messy, an unnecessary use of chemicals and while low effort, you need to wait before you can start planting. Good for large areas though, especially if you have or can hire a rotavator to dig it all over afterwards.

Turf stripping machine - These are petrol driven large lawnmower sized machines that have 4 wheels and a square U-shaped blade that vibrates rapidly back and forwards an inch or so beneath the soil, so separating it from the turf. They do the same sort of job as the spade in the manual method above, but are powered and so much easier. They are still quite an effort to use however and can be heavy to manoeuvre around, I have sweated mightily while wrestling one of these machines around gardens. If you have a large area to strip they are invaluable, hire them by the week, day or half day from tool-hire centres.

If you want to re-lay the turf you have lifted, you could hire a "professional machine". The most common turf cutters like the one in the picture result in turf that is rather messy and can't really be re-laid again, it's best composted as it's all chewed up in irregular sized pieces. Professional turf cutters are a little more expensive, though not a lot - maybe £75-80 a day as opposed to £60-65. They are larger and heavier, but most importantly, they can remove the turf in rolls that are able to be laid again elsewhere rather than having to deal with the lifted turf or buy some in, so it could be the most economical deal. If you do use the turf elsewhere, then plan things so the lifted turf has the minimum amount of time before it is put down again - ideally immediately, certainly within 24 hours or up to 48 hours if you don't mind it looking ill for a while.