given that the wood is right there, I would certainly consider hugelkultur, which would solve a lot of problems right off the bat. For poison ivy, you have to do two things: 1) cut all fruiting vines to stop reproduction and 2) use Round Up. I notice that with mature vines, mature trees, and shrubs, the usual trick of laying down cardboard to prevent roots from sending up new growth will not work. I was contemplating a large pile of scrap plywood at work today, if it was me I would make deep beds (2 cinder block high, first cinderblock half buried), line them with plywood (you may find it free on craigslist) at the bottom, after having cut everything flush to the ground, fill them with wood logs and wood chips (hugelkultur), top up with good soil which will have to be brought in (you may get manure, and speed up things). Treat the paths with Round Up if necessary (it is always much better to apply RU undiluted with a brush, than to spray. specially in the presence of vegetables). This would avoid any excavation and keep nutrients and organic matter there, which is efficient. In the future, you would have to add only nitrogen. And high beds are good for your aging back. Digging up stumps in clay is a lot more difficult and expensive than you may imagine, and amending clay by tilling nearly impossible with all the roots in the ground. Note that I prefer organic methods whenever possible, but I know you have to violate principles occasionally. Poison ivy and avoiding pulling stumps by using plywood (not to mention that brambles are incredibly difficult to kill by covering) are two such cases. The plywood will eventually disappear. I would have good clearance between the garden and surviving trees, at least 20 ft, 30 preferrable, and have a trench of loose soil in between eventually, so you can cut wandering roots with ease. My former garden was 20 ft from trees, I did it and it worked, every 2 years or so I would have to cut again.

I'm afraid I don't have any advice for clearing trees, but I do have a somewhat related issue. I've got about 3 acres in an urban area on which I'd like to start an organic growing system. My most pressing concern right now is the field, currently covered mostly with grass. The soil has been tested to be clean and healthy, but the ground is full of rocks and chunks of concrete, some very large. In some areas, it's hard to dig more than a foot or two without hitting some sizeable rocks. The middle section of the field also floods during rains. My questions: 1) What steps do I need to take to prepare the field for planting, given all the rocks? Digging them all up by hand seems like a Herculean task. I can't afford to buy a tractor, but may be able to rent one. If I can rent one, what kind of equipment should I be looking to rent? 2) How can I increase the soil height or improve the soil drainage to prevent flooding? Dig runoff ditches maybe? The only suggestion I've heard so far is to truck in about 300 cubic meters of soil from outside sources, but this seems antithetical to an organic system. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. And if anyone here knows what zone Shanghai, China, is, that would be helpful.

i don't know about who to contact to remove it for you. i usually do this type of work myself, honestly it is pretty time-consuming, though. you might want to look in local newspaper/yellow pages? or you might look on bulletin boards in your town. it's a good idea to check with references. but --- you might want to walk around the property and figure out what you have there. you might have some rare rose/shrubs/other plants. if you're not sure what it is, you can photograph it and there is a section of this web site to post photos and get help with plant identity. you never know what treasures you might have. and you could possibly move/incorporate them into new garden plans. we've found several old plants on our property that we decided to preserve. another friend recently moved upstate full-time found a lot of treasures that were hidden beneath the overgrowth of neglect for who knows how long. i think it would be a bit of shame to eradicate everything without first getting some sort of inventory, because you might find that you have some treasures there. and the more plants you can save, the less money you'll have to spend on new plants, which might help with the expense of paying someone to tame it. or --- maybe a neighbor (or someone on this message board) might be looking for a hard-to-find plant that is putting up a good fight to survive in your overgrowth. if it is something you don't want, you could post a little something here and probably find someone who'll want to rescue it and give it a new home in their garden. one more tip: take lots of before-and-after photos along the way. keep a record of the progress. it's fun to have a record of what it used to look like --- and look back at that a few years down the road. good luck! --robbie--

Hi! They were lovingly called "Sunchokes" back in the 70s. I still grow a lil patch. Pretty little sunflowers. I have seeds from Oct. 2005 Send me an e-mail. ~ SweetAnnie4u