Remove or rotivate

no
work the place and let it the winter do the remain

Mark out the area you want to turn into a vegetable patch, cutting around the edge with a spade. Lay out a piece of polythene about a metre wide off the end of the area, cut off the turf about a foot wide across the other end, place it on the polythene sheet in a line, then dig out a spadeful of earth, to make a trench, place on the polythene. Go back to your trench, take off the next line of turf and place in the trench grass side down. Dig earth in over top of the turf, continue that process through the plot. Put the turf from the polythene into the last trench and dig in the earth from the polythene. Shake the residue from the polythene onto the patch which should be rough dug and leave for the frost to break down in the winter. estimated time 3 hours for 1 rod.

My goodness, Docbob! That takes me back a few years! Rods, poles and perches. We had to learn all our tables, didn't we!

We certainly did Spritz, those were the days.

Me too. I must have dug at least half an acre of Meadowland, as I slowly increased the cultivated piece. Evereything was so much slower then . Hand shears and Push power lawn mowers and a crosscut saw. Don't forget the Scythe and sickle. Dutch Hoe and no weed killers except Sodium chlorate (Mind your boots) it has been known for them to light up if too much weed killer dried on them. I think the formula has been altered since those days.

Is that one of the reasons why I don't like using weed killers? There are others, but I guess it does hark back to my childhood.

Lovely to reminisce, the sad thing is we've all given our age away.

you could remove the turf and store green side down in a compost bin , this will make a lovely loam soil for next year , that is what we did . our compost bins are 1metre cubes of t&g wood with a removable front section and an old piece of carpet on top . or you could just pile up the turf and cover with plastic.
hope this helps........steve