[Farmall] O/T...but serendipity

[James Moran]

Interesting point.  Well...the main reason why there is this preponderance of stones/rocks within the "intended area" is due to that scraping (topsoil removal) activity many years ago.  Now, if you can envision this...the total "front field" is on the order of about 5 acres.  The  front 1/3 (or so) and the rear 1/3 (closer to our house and a fairly wide strip that runs along the driveway (maybe 800 feet) supports grass very well with very minor rock outcroppings.  These described portions "border" the "crappy-clay", which is maybe two or so acres in what one might call a "random shape" (not a neat rectangle, if you get me).  So...to return the field to NATURAL would, I guess, command hauling in tons of topsoil and spreading is evenly (undoing the scraping, so to speak).  This would be very costly, time consuming, and (frankly) the idea of profuse wildflower color (and the  new wildlife that would be attracted) really appeals to us.
To your point(s)...yes, I know that the frost will (annually) heave the rocks about and, in terms of "amount", there is a lot and they vary in size widely.  One concern, I guess, would be that, if I opted to try to bust up and "invigorate" the soil with a 540 PTO rear tiller, the "effect" upon the tiller by the stones would be negative.  Optionally, I could merely disc or chisel plow the surface down a few inches and, then spread/cut in some sort of appropriate mulch material.
Sure, I would rather NOT spend days out there prying up rocks and dumping them elsewhere.
We'll see and thanks for your comments (and any more advice/suggestions you and others might offer).

szabelsk at gdls.com wrote: If the intent is to return the field to as natural a state as possible, I 
would not take the time and effort to remove and rocks/stones. They are 
natural. Also, unless you plan to make the rock/stone removal a yearly 
effort, you are still probably going to have rocks/stones every year when 
the frost causes them to surface. But then I don't know how many 
rocks/stones you have to deal with, so this is up to you. Depending on how 
many and what size of rock/stone you are dealing with, you may be able to 
sell them off and use the proceeds to offset other costs.

Carl Szabelski



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