How thick is it? An inch or a foot?

Also, where are you, is it spring or fall there? How long ago was all this laid down?

Thank you for quick reply:

Thickness varies all over so i would range it from 1 inch to 5 inches rougly.

Located in the country of Folsom, Louisiana surround by pine trees and different type of oaks.

We just moved in the freshly built home of Oct last year. but last January (2015) is when the trees were cut. So 1 year and 2 months since the shavings /mulch and splinters has been laid.

If any of it has been moist enough to start to decompose (with mushrooms and everything), then it's only a matter of months before it's all gone. Wood above the ground will rot away quickly once it gets started.

why take it away? Then you will have to haul compost in to grow anything, and compost will not be as good as what you have. You should consider planting a cover crop, mow it in spring, then plant what you want to plant.

Thanks for the comments. I will have to take pictures to show exactly what I mean. The wood, even after a year hasn't showed signs of decomposing except they have turned white/grey and still hard like fresh wood but drier. I assure you cutting them up more will tear the blades up in no time, as this has already been tried.

Once I step in from work, I will post some pics and hopefully this will shed some light on what I'm trying to explain.

Glib, it is nothing like compost, as I understand what you are saying. Picture, say, about 50 to 60 med/large PINE trees scattered on 2.5 acres and each tree was "detonated"... That's the type of shards I have all over the yard.

If the arborist would have did what I requested in the first place (haul the cut trees away) I would not have this problem and I would have perfect Centipede grass growing all over.

They used some type of machine to shred up the trees and left the shards there. Basically looks like a warzone of splintered pine.

Hope fully, that paints a better picture?

I have used those shards in the past. In particular, my orchard had 40 tons of the stuff on the ground, from a construction site just like yours. Just like yours, first year they did nothing. But you have to understand that it is the only fertility you have.

If you want to cover it and ultimately make it disappear, plant a cover crop. That will not only cover the shards, it will vastly accelerate their decay as it jump-starts the biology you are lacking. At the end of the process you will have nothing left except fertile soil. For your application, winter rye is ideal, but if you want even faster rate of decay, plant a legume (hairy vetch or cowpea) that will provide the nitrogen. Then get a high riding mower or, better, a good scythe. The shards are very coarse stuff, of course, but large seeds, specially if broadcast mixed 1/10 with compost or other fine material, and watered in by a good rain, do surprisingly well. If you want pretty blooms, you can put buckwheat, favas and sunflowers in the mix (but use only large seeds for your mix). Perhaps it is me who should post pics of my orchard soil. It was horrible, it is OK now, and the shards are gone.

I second the tractor/box blade. I've cleaned up similar messes and my box blade did a good job of smoothing out the ground, while collecting the debris and a bit of soil. A landscape rake is another implement that could work if you want to disturb the soil less.

All depends on whether you are willing to wait for nature to take its course vs. having that perfect looking lawn right away.

Landscape rake, that's what I was going for and couldn't come up with the term. It would certainly rake out the larger pieces and stir up the rest which would speed decomposition as glib said. That may be just the ticket.

I actually never thought of that, very good advice(s) indeed. I shall try Landscape rake, and/or tractor box blade.

I would say it does look like a wood chipper was used but alot of the debris from whatever "said" machine they used came out looking like 1 - 2 feet long shreds, imagine wood version of pulled pork (food). but LARGE sizes and so dry and dense. It doesn't break effortlessly, it still has pretty much the strength of framing wood or fresh pine although it's been over a year.

Come to think of it, this past year until JUST recently, we had a very unusual dry spell here in the south on Louisiana, it was just this past month we started getting bad storms. So as far as decomposition goes, I don't think our lot or even this area had all the elements to start properly.

Of course I don't need to 100% clear the lot (spotless) as i understand it helps with the biology of the soil. It is just that their is SO MUCH of this chippings, you can't even feel or see soil underneath so a good layer of it needs to come up or at least aerate it so the soil can be exposed to the rain and sunlight for proper seeding.

I think you're right. Grass can tolerate a few chips but what you're describing is kind of a nonstarter for growing a lawn from seed. I've seen the type of wood chipper output you're describing - our city yard waste/mulch site makes similar 'chips'. Some of the smaller branches seem to fly right through in big pieces.

Post on Craigslist that some of that "mulch" is available and see how many people will come remove it for their own use.

A lawn tractor or small farm tractor with a rake could collect the shards and leave the finer material. Then you can compost the shards.

It sounds like the shredding crew removed the screens that are supposed to keep the material in the hammer chamber until it's shredded small enough. True, it does mean your shredder won't clog, but the exiting material is a lot coarser.

you can also use the shards to level any spot that you think may need leveling.

How about grass plugs instead of grass seed? I'm planning to pop in some zoysia plugs this year in another spot that still has quite a bit of debris. I figure I can pop em in, let em fill out around the debris, and if I feel like it, mow with the blade at highest setting to miss the debris. If you're not in a hurry for a lawn to fill in, like me, it might be crazy enough to work.

I will be planning to sod a little more once I get the debris up. It is definitely too much lying around to attempt to grow grass on top of it. So once I maybe try Landscaping Rake then I will be seed AND plug/sod. It's all about trying to get the mess cleaned up first.

Sounds like a plan.

"Sod" to me is a sheet of grass already grown, so I assume you're sodding and seeding in different areas.

That's correct. I have several areas around the driveway that definitely requires sod (we poured an extra slab of concrete from the original 25x30 pad that was built with the house to the road) so there is a lot of red clay surrounding it. Once I level that area and add some soil to help with the sod since red clay is very non-nutritious for grass, the rest of the yard which is my REAL problem area (the splintered shards and mulch) can pretty much just rely on seeding and possibly some leftover sod in the rough areas.

Let us know how it works out!