Reply To: Preparing a wooded lot

[chris]

Hey Charles,

I have cleared the area with a brush cutter which took everything down to about 4 inches. Took the advice from the book and tried to take a garden spade to the thorn crowns – it’s very difficult and I have close to 1/4 acre to get through – there were lots and lots of the green thorns which have underground rhizomes.

In this case do you think I should hire an excavator or bobcat to come in and scrape off that 5″ and level out the ground? I’m afraid of losing some fertility but would still think about sheet mulching and adding the compost after this as well as grind the stumps out.

I’m a bit confused as to where to go from here in my garden?