Sod off!

It all started with the satellite dish. The honking big old dish in the middle of the back yard.

We didn't want this dish in the middle of the back yard so last fall we set about dismantling it.

Of course it was a crappy job--all of the bolts were rusted, the thing was bigger than the both of us, and the pole was embedded in cement.

We got the bolts undone, the dish lifted off, the wire pulled out of the ground. But no matter how we dug and pushed and grunted, we could not budge the mounting pole. So it sat and thumbed its nose at us all winter.

Then I had an epiphany. If we couldn't move the pole, we would plant something useful around it. And that's how we decided where to put our asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberries.

Now, if we had come to this conclusion earlier, we would have laid down a thick bed of mulch to kill the grass and come spring we would have only had to turn the plot.

Instead, any time the weather permitted during late winter, I took my trusty shovel and hand-turned a row or two. Finally, by spring, we had a dug bed approximately 6' x 34'.

Of course, turned sod is not ready for planting anything. Now the real work began--getting the grass and roots out, leaving loose, mostly weed-free dirt.

If there is a less labor intensive way to do this, no one has ever shared it with us. It's down on your knees, pound each clump with a trowel and shake off the dirt. Repeat until you ache even more than usual.

The grass and roots get dumped in the wilder part of the yard.

We have about half of the plot done,

not quite up to the pole that started this whole project.

It rained overnight, so we get a day off but we are on a deadline: strawberry plants and asparagus roots are on order and should arrive within the next few weeks and I have rhubarb seeds started under lights. Weather permitting, it should get finished this week.

And the pole? I'm thinking the ex-satellite dish mount would be perfect for bringing us the morning glory channel, in full technicolor.