For the last few months we've been pulling up sod. I'm tired of the grass growing where it's not supposed to grow, and dying where it's supposed to grow. I'm tired of my water bill too. So I've been ripping it out. Then comes the dilemma, what does one do with dried out, heavy, dead sod? It fills the compost too quickly, plus it has this plastic netting that doesn't decompose. The yard debris pick up won't take it. It seems really wrong to put it in the landfill. So I've been lining the back side of my fence with it. There's a mostly unused irrigation ditch back there, 20 acres just sitting unused. Occasionally the owners burn the weeds out of the ditch. One year they told me not to put any yard debris back there. I was fine with that, I said, as long as the weeds were kept down. This year the weeds were taking over sooo....I figured if the sod doesn't grow in my yard while its being pampered, maybe it will at least keep the weeds down. I kind of sneak it back there. It has really done the trick with the weeds. But today, I learned another amazingly good thing about this yard waste product.
Dried up, dead sod is an amazing fire retardant. And the God of Sod is an amazing protector! He used all that dead sod as a fire break to protect our home during a grass fire right behind our house. This is truly an example of turning beauty from ashes...or keeping beauty from ashes ...or something like that. Or more likely taking what we think of as a total waste and using it for good. Thank you, oh God of Sod! 
