Clearing Land for a Garden or Small Farm in New Jersey

Why the clearing method matters more for farms

Every other project in this article series — building lots, pools, pole barns — involves clearing ground that’s going to be excavated, graded, or covered. The soil quality after clearing doesn’t matter much because the soil is getting moved or buried. Farming is the opposite. The soil IS the product. Its structure, biology, organic content, and drainage capacity determine whether your crops grow or fail.

Bulldozing strips the topsoil — the top 6–12 inches where 90% of the biological activity happens. On NJ’s agricultural soils, that layer took decades to build. A bulldozer removes it in minutes, mixes it into a subsoil pile, and leaves you farming on clay or sand. Rebuilding takes years of cover cropping, compost application, and patience.

Forestry mulching preserves the topsoil and adds to it. The mulch left on the surface decomposes over six to eighteen months, depositing organic matter directly into the soil. On former farmland that’s been fallow for ten years, the underlying agricultural soil is still there — it just has brush growing on it. Remove the brush with a method that doesn’t damage the soil and you have productive ground again within one growing season.

Bush hogging works if — and only if — the growth is grass and light brush under two inches in diameter. On NJ fallow fields older than about four years, the autumn olive and multiflora rose are too woody for a bush hog. If someone tells you to bush hog a field with chest-high autumn olive, they haven’t tried it.

The path from brush to planting

Year zero: Clear. Forestry mulching grinds everything to ground level. The mulch covers the field in a two-to-four-inch layer of shredded organic material. This is late fall or winter work — clear before the growing season you intend to plant.

Spring: Assess and amend. Once the mulch has settled through winter, walk the field. You’ll see the soil type, the drainage pattern, any wet spots, and any rock that the brush was hiding. Pull soil samples and send them to the Rutgers Cooperative Extension soil testing lab. The results tell you what amendments the soil needs — lime, phosphorus, nitrogen, compost — based on what you’re planting.

Option A — Plant through the mulch. For coarse crops (squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, corn) and pasture/hay seeding, you can plant directly through the decomposing mulch layer. Seed germinates through the mulch; transplants are set into holes punched through it. The mulch suppresses weeds during the critical establishment period.

Option B — Disc and incorporate. For fine-seeded crops (lettuce, carrots, herbs) and for properties where the mulch layer is thick (6+ inches from dense clearing), disc the mulch into the soil using a tractor-mounted disc harrow. This breaks up the mulch, mixes it into the topsoil, and creates a smoother seedbed. Wait two to four weeks after discing for the soil biology to stabilize before planting.

Option C — Remove mulch from specific beds. For small-scale intensive gardens (raised beds, market garden rows), scrape the mulch off the planting rows and use it as pathway material between beds. This gives clean soil for direct seeding in the beds while the mulch controls weeds in the paths.

Year one onward: Maintain. Any fallow field in NJ will try to revert. The seed bank in the soil contains autumn olive, multiflora rose, and every other invasive that was growing there before. Annual mowing or cultivation prevents regrowth. The first year after clearing requires the most vigilance — by year two, your crop canopy and regular maintenance keep the invasives suppressed.

What's growing on your fallow NJ field right now

If the field has been fallow for less than three years, it’s grass, goldenrod, and asters. A bush hog handles this.

At three to five years, autumn olive and multiflora rose have established. Woody stems are one to three inches thick. This is the transition zone — a bush hog struggles, a forestry mulcher handles it easily.

At five to ten years, the autumn olive is overhead height with stems three to five inches thick. Multiflora rose has formed impenetrable thickets. Red cedar and Virginia pine have established from bird-dropped seeds. This is solidly forestry mulcher territory.

At ten to fifteen years, the canopy is closing. Young hardwoods — red maple, sweet gum, black cherry — are six to ten inches in diameter. The field is becoming young forest. The mulcher handles everything up to about eight inches; larger trees may need selective chainsaw removal first.

Beyond fifteen years, it’s forest. The conversion back to farmland at this stage is a major project involving full clearing, potential stump removal for cultivation, and significant soil rebuilding.

NJ farmland assessment and clearing

If your property carries a farmland assessment (reduced property tax based on agricultural use), clearing overgrown fields to restore them to production supports that assessment. NJ farmland assessment requires the property to be actively devoted to agricultural or horticultural use — which means a fallow field that’s reverted to brush may not qualify unless you’re actively restoring it.

The income requirements for NJ farmland assessment are: $1,000 in gross sales for the first 5 acres, plus $5 for each additional acre. On a recently cleared field, a single season of hay cutting or pasture rental can meet this threshold. Some property owners clear fallow fields specifically to maintain the farmland assessment and avoid the tax rollback penalty that applies when land loses its qualified farm status.

If you’re clearing to START farming on land that doesn’t currently have a farmland assessment, check with your county tax assessor about the application process. You need to demonstrate active agricultural use for at least two successive years before the assessment takes effect.

Costs for farm and garden clearing

Pasture and field reclamation on NJ’s valley-floor terrain — the flat, deep-soiled farmland in Delaware Township, Readington, Mansfield, and Pohatcong — is the most cost-efficient clearing work we do. The flat terrain lets the mulcher run at production speed with no slope restrictions.

A five-acre field with moderate growth clears in two to three days at roughly $8,000 to $12,000 total. That same field, once restored to productive use, generates income and maintains a farmland assessment that saves thousands annually in property taxes.