It is raining right now as I write. I laugh. The earth in these parts is parched. This is good. But, I laugh because I just finished doing the first turning up of the lawn that I am removing. The idea was to dig it up and then let it sit for a few days to dry. Yes, dry. It has been nothing but dry the last several months. I am not complaining. We need a lot more of this. Rain.
This will just give me a few extra days of rest before embarking on the next step: shaking all the dirt free from the root mats. This is going to be an arduous process. I started to do it this morning, but gave it up for more digging, if that says anything about how fun it is….
On the bright side, I did get the rest of the lawn that is going to be removed dug up. Step on, done! You might be noticing that there is still some lawn in the back. Yep. We are keeping that for now. One step at a time, right?
The deeper I get into this project the more possibilities I see. Thanks for cheering me on!
Growing Up in the Garden 
That is wondrous (and hard) work! What kind of grass is it? Will you have to lay down a barrier to keep it from retaking over your garden? The grass I grew up with was seed based and would let go of its dirt with a shake and not cause too much of a weed problem. The grasses where I am now are so root-invasive that it’s hard to keep them out of anything!
The grass is Saint Augustine, the root based variety. I am not sure how much of the root has to be present for it to spring back. We plan to lay landscaping cloth and then wood chips in the places where there are no veggies. Thanks for the encouragement.
St. Augustine is my favorite to rip out of the harder kinds. I bet yours will turn out lovely š
Things are coming along nicely I see. Removing the dirt from the root ball was an arduous task for me as well when I started the garden. The only benefit I could see at the time was extracting the earthworms. I love those little guys!
Thank you! Yes, there are hundreds of worms crawling around in those root balls. I hope to not throw any away.
It’s going to be fabulous!