Sod Revisited: Another Piece to Consider

It’s been a couple weeks since I dropped this bomb on folks with lawns: before you can have the water-wise yard of your dreams, you must first remove sod (and it isn’t easy). Removing athletic turfgrass, which has been the norm of residential landscaping for decades, was illustrated to be a very physically and financially intense activity with little assistance from the municipality to make it easier. I even encouraged readers to consider reaching out to local representatives to ask them why they support drought-tolerant landscape transition at the cost of the homeowner, but don’t offer any infrastructure or incentives to make it easier (or less expensive).

Well, folks, Environment Lethbridge has an update on that information from the City of Lethbridge! As it turns out, the municipality has their communal hands tied due to the Soil Conservation Act. The nuts and bolts of this piece of provincial legislation is that the landowner is responsible for conserving topsoil and the municipality is held accountable for ensuring that the Act is followed by the landowner. What has topsoil got to do with sod, you ask? Well, removal of turfgrass inevitably removes some of the soil it is growing in, which is what makes it “sod”. When you take the removed sod to the landfill, the City takes care of your topsoil responsibility for you (at your expense) by ensuring the proper care of plant and soil. It is against the law to bury topsoil, so the sod pile at the municipal waste center is regularly turned to allow the plant and root to dry and float to the surface, where it is removed for composting and the topsoil returns to the municipally-governed land in which it originated. 

I imagine this isn’t of huge interest to readers except for the fact that I haven’t made it any easier for them to proceed with DIY drought-tolerant landscaping projects because the sod problem remains unresolved. Perhaps the root of the problem is the way we view it?

I am finding through my research and outreach that most folks just don’t have the money for large-scale landscaping projects these days. I know I don’t. It’s for this reason that I have been writing how-to articles to help you get your projects done on your own. I’m writing this one now, because I have (unbeknownst to me) been following the Soil Conservation Act on my own property by reclaiming soil during small-scale installation. You can do this too. 

First, no matter how you do your sod removal, it’s of utmost importance to the success of your new installation to ensure you remove ALL of the sod. That includes the entirety of the thatch layer underneath, which contains root and leaf material, seed, and soil. This must be removed because if any piece of it is left behind, it will likely grow Kentucky Bluegrass in your new garden or drought-tolerant “lawn” and will need to be removed again. Therefore, there is no way around the fact that you will remove topsoil and therefore be subject to scrutiny under the Soil Conservation Act. There are large companies who have set up sites to deal with removed sod as well as the City of Lethbridge through waste management. Again, you will have to pay for that as the landowner who removed the topsoil.

The reason I like small-scale, yearly installations that slowly grow into a landscape that you desire (besides the fact that this technique is less water-intensive) is because the small amount of sod removed can be dealt with where it came from. Essentially, you can remove the plant matter from the soil. Here are two ways that I harvest my topsoil so that I am left with dry, light plant matter that I can (with approval from the city) put in my green bin:

The soil screen: This is a device that is used to scrape the soil off removed plants. It can be mechanized (so it vibrates), be as large or as small as you like, and is very easy to build according to your needs. Here are several versions of soil screens;

I created a 2×4 frame with a lip that fits snugly on top of my wheelbarrow and use 2 layers of stucco wire as the screen (chicken wire is too bendy and fragile).

When I am removing sod in a small installation, I take out one or two foot square chunks and throw them forcefully on the ground (usually on turf). This bangs the soil out with force, then I scrape the sod on the screen. It may take a few days of drying/banging/scraping, but you will eventually be left with a dry husk of plant material. This can go in your green bin (and you have a pile of soil to mix into your compost or existing garden!)

The sod pile: I tend to use this more often because my 10 year-old homemade screen broke a couple years back and I haven’t gotten around to building a new one. Choose a shady location that will stay damp for your sod pile (under a large tree by a fence and shed is the location of my pile): it helps to hide it if the aesthetics drive you crazy, I get it. When removing sod, drop it forcefully on the ground (as above), then toss it into your pile.  If you use a pitchfork or just your hands to turn the pile and bang out the sod every month or so, you’ll find that the plant material will shrink away from the soil and you can start removing it to your green bin. This is a picture of my sod pile that I started the summer of 2024. 

I hope you feel a little more empowered now, as a responsible governor of Alberta topsoil who has the ability to harvest it back to your own landscape at no charge. Make sure you sign up for Environment Lethbridge’s Living Cities in Your Yard program if you are interested in doing a landscape transition (no matter how small) before June 2026 and we will help you get it done.