Let’s Rip Up Some Sod!

After working on the fence last spring, I continued updating the backyard landscape. The next project was to create a ‘bark garden’ by removing the sod and creating bark beds around the fence line. There were three reasons for thinking this would be a good idea:

1. The space between the fence and the shed never gets watered so the grass is sparse and mowing it just kicks up dust
2. It would keep me from being nose to nose with the fence. Even though I was confident that the work I did to shore up the fence would keep the neighbor dogs from breaking through it, it’s still a bit disconcerting when I am weeding along the fence on hands and knees and one of them runs up to it to bark at me
3. To make it easier to mow. Since it isn’t possible (or at least not for me) to mow right next to the fence and I forbid hubby from using the weed whacker on my newly installed, painted shiplap, I put myself in the position of reason #1, weeding along the fence line on hands and knees

• 

• 

Years ago, when I removed sod to create the flower beds on the East end of the lawn in both the front and back yards, I did so by hand. If you’ve done this, you know it’s not an easy task. Knowing this, I considered renting a sod cutter but then thought ‘What the heck, I’ve done this before, it wasn’t that bad’ (you know, the same lie we tell ourselves about how bad labor was when considering having a second child 🙂 )so I chose to manually remove the sod. Of course, it was THAT bad, a fact I realized immediately, but I’m fairly stubborn and pretty frugal so I just kept at it. Like with many of my projects, I choose to view the manual labor part as being good for me physically. Nothing like ripping up sod to add muscle:

• To the biceps and upper back
  • Pulling up the sod
• To the legs and arms
  • Loading sod into the wagon to take it to a spot under the deck
  • Unloading wagon for several more trips
  • Reloading sod into the wagon from the spot under the deck
  • Hauling it one load at a time into the garage to load into the truck
  • Taking it to a friends property to unload it once again
    • I was so glad she could use it – she said it wintered well and it’s growing!
• Sound fun? 🙂

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My go-to tools for sod rippage is a shovel and small garden claw. I use the shovel to cut through the sod along the desired length and width of the area then grab my garden kneeling pad, get down on hands and knees then use the garden claw to pull the sod toward me bit by bit, inch by inch. When I’ve pulled up a section that is approximately a foot by a foot, I rip it away from the grass and place it in the wagon. Sometimes it comes loose before I have a section that big but it’s usually firm enough to hold together. My plan when I started the project, was to make the bark beds 3 ft wide but that was before I decided to use the cement paver edging, which then made the bed too narrow. So, after finishing the ‘longest length’ section, I went back over it to pull out an additional 8″ from that entire length! Although it was more work, it was a good decision because it looks much better with the wider bed.

Once I had the sod removed from an area, I laid down landscape cloth and edged the space with cement stepping stones & pavers. I decided to use a combination of 12″ x 12″ and 8″ x 12″. The square stepping stones are used at the end of each section and the rectangular pavers are used for edging between the bark and the grass. The first section to be completed was around the shed. Doesn’t it look SO much nicer?!

• 

• 

• 

• 

I bought bags of bark from the local Ace Hardware – super convenient as it is two blocks from the house….however, they ran out of the bags! When I asked when they would get more, they said they probably wouldn’t get another shipment for the rest of the summer!! Rats! So, I drove into town to see what Home Depot had but I didn’t really like what the type of bark they sold, so I only bought a few bags there. It’s probably just as well that Ace ran out and I didn’t like the type Home Depot sold because buying bark by the bag was going to add up to more $$ than I had estimated due to the size of the beds. I was talking to a friend who has bark beds and she says they use a company that comes to their house and blows the bark into the beds using a long hose – that’s interesting! It was also a bit more than I wanted to spend so, I started looking around for places that sell bark in bulk. I was surprised to realize that I drive past two such places on my way to work! You know how you don’t really pay attention to something until you need it? Next step was to call these businesses for a quote.

When I called, I was pleased to hear how reasonably priced bulk bark was and couldn’t wait to buy some and bring it home. Hubby picked up the first truck load while I was at work so I would have the bark to continue the project on the weekend. The price to fill his Tacoma truck bed to the brim was $35! What a deal!!! When it was time to get the 2nd load – I made the trip. It was fun to watch Esther using the tractor to load the truck; I was quite impressed! Course, now that we were using bulk bark, instead of carrying bags of bark from the garage to the backyard, I was filling my little wagon before taking it to the backyard. There were Lots of trips with the wagon but the bark is lightweight, so I didn’t mind too much besides, look at all the extra exercise I was getting!

• 

• 

• 

What I found while pulling up the sod was that we had a lot of roots under our grass that came from both our trees & the neighbor’s trees and also from some pretty beefy weeds. I was able to pull up several of the roots and cut out others. However, there are large roots running through the yard that I just couldn’t remove so some the pavers are not nice and level.

Bark bed by house

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once the beds were complete, I created 3 solar fountains and placed one by the house, one by the South fence and one by the shed. The fountain next to the house is made from 1/2 whisky barrel which is plastic so it makes a good base for holding water. I found the solar fountains online and they work great most of the time. If the weather is very cloudy, it doesn’t put out much water but they are a great option when you want a fountain and there isn’t a power supply close by. You can find them on the links I have provided for each one. The picture of the South fountain is at the end of the season so I have stored the solar gear, I’ll update the picture once the weather improves here 🙂

• 

• 

Bark bed – West side

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Bark bed – South side

• 

• 

• 

• 

Bark bed – North side

• 

• 

During the fence project, we decided to have a new gate built as the old one was falling apart at the hinges. Our neighbor, Jake, who did the work to replace the West fence when it fell down, built a new gate for us. Since the new gate is made with new wood, it’s heavier than the old one which meant we needed to shore up the fence on either side of the gate. My contractor, James, installed the cross bars that you can see in the picture above as a fix for now. I suppose we may need to replace those sections of fence one day, but for now, it’s doing fine.

Last summer was spent updating the landscape and fence in the backyard. In addition to adding strength and beauty to the fence, I created bark beds, installed 3 solar fountains, decorated the fence with fun fence art, built a paver patio for the bench to sit on, installed pavers in front of the shed & back patio, and created planters from cement blocks. The backyard looks fantastic! This year, I plan to add gardens to the West side of the front yard in front of this gate and along the house and side fence. What are your landscape projects this year? Leave a comment and let me know!

Supplies Used

• 12″ x 12″ cement stepping stones
• 8″ x 12″ pavers
• Landscape cloth
• Bark
• Shovel
• Wagon
• Garden claw
• Kneeling pad
• Gloves
• Umbrella to provide shade

Instructions

• Remove sod – you may want to rent a machine if your area is large
• Level ground as best you can
• Lay down landscape cloth
• Line area with cement pavers/stepping stones
• Cover landscape cloth with bark

Fun DIY outdoor projects for you!

• Let’s Build a Garden Bench!
• Let’s Build Planter Boxes!
• Let’s Build Some Arbors!
• Let’s Build a Tree Bench!
• Let’s Paint the Shed!
• Let’s Make a Raised Garden Bed!
• Let’s Save Some Bees!
• Let’s Build a Little Patio!
• Pallet potting bench
• Perpetual Deck Project

Send me all the Goodies!

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Leave this field empty if you’re human: