If this was my yard, this is what I would do. - Cut down all unwanted trees and remove unwanted/dead branches from the remaining trees. - Rent a stump grinder and totally grind all stumps and large branch roots - Use garden rakes to rake up all remaining debris. - Arrange for a disposal box to be dropped off by a private hauler and then put all the above materials into it. Call the guy back and have the box removed. However, I would be inclined to rent a tiller and just till all that wonderful humus right into the soil. Then I would rake off any debris while levelling out the seed bed. Maybe a neighbour has a wood-burning stove or fireplace and would be happy to take away all the wood from the trees. The small branches can be cut up, bundled and put out for collection. All of this depends on budget and other factors. If the yard is full of shallow tree roots, then tilling might not be in the cards. Leaf blowers are rarely effective on wet, decomposing leaves so you might find one of those to be a waste of money for this task. This is going to be a labour-intensive task unless the tiller suggestion is viable.

Nate, it sounds like the following is too late, since your work has already begun, but for what it's worth: We had 4 new roofs (entire house) and everything that that entailed (remove old roofs, put on new + gutters & downspouts) and new stucco siding on one side of the house's addition (hence, remove all old stucco, too). Contractor also created a new profile for the eave over that side of the house; also made and installed a copper overhang for the window on that side. Not all of this was done at the same time; still, a lot of construction materials and debris. Used the same contractor and his small crew for everything. The crew was able to do the roofing job by accessing all the roofs from the patio; the main issue was roof debris that ended up on the ground. They were exceedingly careful and neat but even now, I do find the occasional nail and bits of roofing material. For the stucco work, however, they needed to erect and safely access scaffolding. I asked the contractor to try to protect a daylily bed directly under the side of the house needing that work. For various reasons, I couldn't dig up the plants in it, even though it contained some daylilies I value a lot (eg LAST SNOWFLAKE, NEON FLAMINGO, COWBOY SCARF, MABOU, Jack Carpenter patterns, and more), so he set up the scaffolding on a large piece of plywood that was placed on cinder blocks on either end of the bed (and with two blocks supporting the mid part of the wood). The crew had to access the scaffolding of course, so one end of the bed got badly trampled & the soil very compacted. Even so, given what had to be done to the house, and the time they spent doing it, the daylilies sailed through everything in near perfect condition. There was a lot of bent and torn foliage, but it was late autumn anyway so that didn't matter. Plus, it was the crowns I'd been concerned about. We plan to use the same guys to paint the house's exterior next spring. Since I don't know exactly which month that will be, I expect to have to dig up the entire bed. Even so, I'll ask the contractor to once again place scaffolding on plywood on cinder blocks. The idea will be to protect the soil from compaction so that I can use that bed again as soon as the work is done.

This seems like a silly question, but I just can't figure it out. You've actually got a pretty tough situation there, not a silly question at all. I'm from OH and live in AL now, so my experiences are in totally different areas but the basic principles are usually fairly universal. If any of my advice is impractical for your location in CA, I'm sure someone will point it out. I'm a newbie wanting to sheet mulch my front yard lawn. Do you intend to grow something besides grass there, or you just want mulch instead of grass so you don't have to mow anymore? Advice I might offer would be the same either way, but I'm curious. My little plots are somewhat small Plots - of grass, right? Its hard to tell in the pic, but the grass slopes somewhat steeply down to the sidewalk, I think that's from the base and roots of the tree maturing and rising. ...meaning anything I put there will most surely end up on the concrete. Do I put in edging and hope no one kicks it down so I can pile things inside? Should I dig the whole area out? Dig a trench along the borders? Any advice is appreciated! It's not usually possible, and almost certainly harmful to a tree to start digging around its' base on a large scale. The accepted general wisdom is that it's a very bad idea to pile (more than around 4 inches) a bunch of anything at the base of a tree (pretty much your whole yard.) If you were to trench around the borders, you would probably sever almost every large root holding this tree in place, making it unstable, dangerous, and eventually dead before its' time is due. It's hard to imagine a remedy that doesn't involve some type of containment border so I would consider bricks or some type of concrete pavers that can just sit on the surface and give you a "lip" of a few inches. You can smother the grass with cardboard which overlaps at the edges by at least 6 inches. Add about an inch of compost (if you want to add plants, not really necessary if you don't,) and about 3 inches of mulch. If you keep the mulch layer renewed when it dissipates from decomposition, your soil will become dark, rich, and well-drained over time. It's also necessary to maintain its' ability to suppress/prevent weeds. If you want to add plants, get small ones so you don't have to attempt to dig big holes through the tree roots. When I've started beds under large trees, the roots often determine plant placement if I encounter a big one. I find it easier to scratch with one of those bent fork things than to try to dig. It would also be good to investigate if your tree has any allelopathic (poisonous) properties that might prevent other plants from growing within its' dripline before you spend any money on plants.

This discussion has come up numerous times, which is why I wrote "once again". Manure is animal excrement. Since mushrooms are not animals, they do not produce manure/excrement. Because you purchased something erroneously labeled as 'mushroom manure' does not make it any more correct and continually referring to it in that manner is misleading and confusing to those not more familiar with the product. As stated here and in the previously linked post, spent mushroom compost may or may not have any manure associated with it!! And since the OP is already dealing with an existing wood chip mulch, why even bring up the issue at all??