Mess to clean up

If you have the time and access to implements you might want to plow it NOW and get all that leftover stuff from the trees into the soil and turn it into mulch by the Spring and then re plow or harrow the land and then drag a piece of chain link fence around to level it better...no point in trying to clean the surface...just incorporate it into the ground and it will be natural fertilizer...would like to see pictures of the progress with what ever method you choose

If it was me, I would probably go over it with a York rake, then probably a lot of lime, then till it up ..... what are you doing, planting grass or garden?

Yeah, we are still trying to get some stumps out before winter. It’s freezing here at night so we are losing time quickly.

With the stumps (pine and hardwoods) sticking out I can’t drag a harrows or fence without snagging.

We will be under snow here until at least May of next year starting soon. So I was hoping to get an attachment on order for Spring/Summer work.

Oneacer said:

If it was me, I would probably go over it with a York rake, then probably a lot of lime, then till it up ..... what are you doing, planting grass or garden?

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Some areas will be a garden. Other areas we are going to replant trees of our choice. And other areas we are going to allow to grow back naturally, but the debris is so thick things didn’t grow back very quickly. So it’s a mix.

The pictured area will be the garden area.

I’d get the stumps out first. Then deal with the debris. Once the stumps are out, you’ll have lots of holes all over the place to put the debris in, if you don’t mind it sinking a bit over time. There will be a really big mess after the stumps come out. If you have a dozer/skid steer come in and level it all off, those sticks won’t hardly matter for what you’re going to do. Maybe ask the operator to keep the big stuff away from where you want the garden.

Agreed... option to rent/hire a bulldozer?

I had a field of stumps here too, took forever to pull 'em all. A big Cat would make short work of that.

Kubota Ronin said:

Agreed... option to rent/hire a bulldozer?

I had a field of stumps here too, took forever to pull 'em all. A big Cat would make short work of that.

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It would have been nice to leave them up a bit higher to push over with a dozer, they don't look to be real big stumps so maybe a crawler.

CCMoe

I would go in there with about a 308 Cat Excavator that had a thumb on it.
Pull the stumps and put them in a pile. Pull all the branches in and grab them with the thumb and pile them all up.
When you have snow on the ground, light the branches and get that burning good, then start throwing the stumps on top of the fire and burn them. You have to knock as much dirt off the stumps as you can and you have to have a hot fire before you start putting them on the fire. But you can burn most of them doing it that way. Can you guess what I did for the last 20 years?

And I agree with others, the leaves and little stuff, just plow it in to the soil. We had a root rake mounted on a D5 that worked OK when the ground was very dry. But if there was any mud, you just wound up rolling up mud balls with lots of sticks in them that acted like rebar reinforced mud ball. To much dirt to burn, the only thing you could do was bury them.

Clear the area for lawn & garden.
leave the rest right where it is and let it rot down as a natural mulch
OR get a flail mower and run that over the debris
That will grind it up finer so it rots faster .
or scrape then drop into a mulcher ( branch grinder, whatever you call them over there )
That will also break them down into small bits and mix then with the soil.
IT is a valuable resource that you don't want to waste .
Unless the paddock is going to be grassed or driven over I like to leave close cut stumps where they are
They will rot down and while doing that provide habitat & food for beneficial fungi plus all of the creepy crawlies that work their butt of making your soil better for free .
Burning is a waste unless you want the ash to raise the pH of the soil .
If you rip the stumps out you will then have to grade and roll or deep rip , then plow or you will end up with a moon scape full of hollows where the roots were