Posted: 18/04/2013 at 20:38
I have just removed maybe 8x 5m (24x15') of turf, all by hand, I also have the worst soil possible, clay with about 40% of every shovel full as pebbles/stone. Reason I did it by hand was I figured the turf cutter would probably be damaged and I'd get charged. I used a spade, a border spade at that! I can't actually sink a border fork into my soil more than a few inches! I wasn't planning on using the turves for anything other than loam, but, your soil 'should' be better than mine. All you need to do is use the spade to cut into the turf a few inches deep, and then cut across every spade size on the turf. Then get down and take up the top 3 inches, roll it up and lay where you want it. As I was actually planning on growing veg on the lawn site, I actually dug over the area with a fork and removed all the grass roots/ pests, and then raked then trod it down, then raked again to get the level. After a few weeks (due to the weather) I have re dug the few pockets of grass/docks growing through and removed them. Again raked and trod down. Using a rotivator might seem like a good idea, but if you have dandylions/docks/couch grass, you are just storing up a massive headache for the future. G luck.
