How to Use a Sod Cutter

Sod Cutters are popular garden tools that are used nowadays to clear a garden of weeds and unwanted vegetation. This article will teach you how to use a sod cutter.

What is a Sod Cutter?

A sod cutter is one of the most used hand gardening tools after the shovel. The simplest kind of sod cutter, looks like a shovel, but with a difference. Not only does it have a serrated edge, but also an angled back. Although the sod cutter is much like a shovel, it can can cut sod better and faster. The serrated edge, helps in effectively uprooting the weeds from their roots. The sod cutter is the successor of the traditional shovel, which outperforms its predecessor when it comes to removing sods and cutting grass. Not only does the use of a sod cutter make grass cutting easier, it saves a lot of time too.

Sod cutters with an attached metal blade of the size of a foot, are also available. The way you sue it is by pressing your foot down on the blade and walk across the garden. As you move ahead, the blade uproots the grass that comes in its way! This particular type of a sod cutter is useful in lawn care. It is used for giving the lawns, clearly defined edges, so that they look neat. One may also find sod cutters with a curved blade edge. Designs vary with manufacturers. Use any sod cutter that suits your style.

How to Use a Sod Cutter Efficiently?

Using a sod cutter is simple, if you know how to use a shovel. As, though their structures are different, their method of operation is the same. Just press the sod cutter into the sod in such a way that you can scoop up the whole sod. Then step in with your foot and force it deeper into the sod. The angled back of the sod cutter will keep you from getting two deep into the soil. As you press down with your foot, the roots will start loosening and will be cut by the serrated edges. Then scoop up the sod. If you intend to lay that sod elsewhere in the garden, keep the grass side at the top and handle it with care.

Gas powered sod cutters are also available, which look similar to tillers. They can be used to clear large tracts of land. They are noisy and a bit rough to handle, but they do the job. As they roll away, they cut the sod into rectangular pieces. These pieces can then be rolled and taken away. Look at the extent of the gardening job and decide which type of sod cutter you want to use.

Sod Cutting Projects

What is the use of knowing how to use a sod cutter, if you do not know where to use it! Now that you know how to wield a sod cutter, let us see where can you use it. The first and foremost situation where a sod cutter will be an indispensable tool is when you are making a new garden!

If you are making you new garden in a place which has been neglected for long, then you will of-course have an army of weeds, already to take care of. This is an ideal job for a sod cutter. Rather, in such a situation using a sod cutter is inevitable. Sod cutters can also be used to totally clear a path for a sidewalk, that you want to create in a garden. As mentioned before, a blade sod cutter is an ideal tool for edging a lawn and giving it a nice and sophisticated look.