Rosepond

The process to change the yard into a garden is shown in this photograph.
First you have a green yard. The grass has to be scraped lose with a spade. The soil is so hard, being packed clay, only a little can been done each day. Paul with Andrew's help, scraped and scraped, for weeks. Whew!
Second, the clay has been turned with the tiller.
Third, any compost plus bags of top soil and leaves are dumped onto the soil.
Fourth, garden area is 'turned' again with the tiller
Fifth, all the sod, good or bad, must be moved. We made a pile of the small pieces, but I moved the rest of the 1000 sq ft of sod to the front yard where it was replanted.