Help needed with soil conditions (rocks and old roots)

My backyard needs help with a couple of issues.

First, the original owners had a very large shed built on top of rocks (little ones, not big slabs). The previous owners removed the old shed and built a new one in a new location with a concrete foundation... but left all the little rocks that came with the original shed. Now, years and years later, the whole yard is giving me a headache. There are rocks EVERYWHERE, they've just migrated everywhere. They're at the surface, their under the surface, they're wedged in between the roots of all the plants. (We dug up old shrubs and ran into a constant barrage of rocks.)

Second, a few years ago the power company came by and cut down a whole bunch of trees on all the properties that butted up against the power lines. But, they left the stumps in. So we hired help to grind the stumps. Well, we were left with a whole bunch of wood chips everywhere in large pits. So now, in addition to the rocks, there are large wood chips everywhere. And on top of that, because they only took care of the stumps, we are also left with some of the roots that were close to the surface. We've been able to pull some of the old roots that were thinner and above the surface. But there are really thick ones really embedded in the dirt.

Not only is the lawn unsightly and difficult to manage, it's wreaking havoc on the dogs. We can't even let them play in the yard because they'll come back with their paws scratched up from running on rocks and sticks.

What's the best way to remedy these issues from the standpoint of a diy-er. I thought about digging everything up manually but that is just not realistic. I also thought about renting a tiller and going at the whole yard and then re-doing the grass from scratch, but I don't think that wouldn't really solve the rocks and roots problem. I've done a lot of home improvement jobs diy, but I have no experience with landscaping jobs.

Any suggestions and advice would be much appreciated.

One option would be to rent one of those little Bobcat things with the shovel on the front and dig out everything, of course then you have to dispose of what you dig out and that could get expensive. You might be able to give away the rocks--lots of people like them to build walls, water features, etc so you could probably get rid of them that way if they're nice rocks.

Or you could make slightly raised areas throughout some parts of the yard, bring in a few inches of topsoil and put it on top, then you can plant grass for the dogs or garden beds for yourself. The thing to be careful of here is drainage, make sure you're not grading your yard so that it slopes toward the house or anything like that

if it were me i wouldn't remove anything, i'd just plant groundcovers flowers shrubs whatever. the problem with grass would be that you would be constantly throwing rocks out of the mower. tiller wouldn't work very well. it would probably jump over the fence when it hit one of those tree roots, or even a rock.
you could also maybe roll the yard to embed the rocks deeper in the soil so they wouldn't be cutting the dog's feet. and if the power company didn't put a stump killer on the stumps the trees may start to grow back. maybe a good thing?

I'd move home ha ha ha, dont understand those lazy good for nothing homeowners who make such huge problems, then walk away and leave the mess to someone else, however, thats my moan over for the night I hope,
I would say if you can find the money, the space and the nerve, get a large JCB, do you call them that, these big machines with huge buckets on front that scrape and clear land, anyway, get them to haul out all the crap that has been left, phone around and ask gov offices if they know any buildings that are being errected as they might want your crap as infill for foundations, thats what we do here, you will be amazed at the amount of people who have to buy infill, give them it for nothing if you find someone, (thats exactly what your previous owner should have done with all the stones from his old shed, used it as footings/foundations for his concrete and got rid that way) anyway once it is cleared, you can then see whats under the mess, and if it looks half decent, get new soil brought in to landscape the place, if you were to build say a deck in the cleared area, less soil will be required or raised beds will mean less moving of soil as you will only fill the beds and perhaps use pavers as paths between, what I am saying is dont get soil till you have a plan drawn out for any hard landscapeing you want to do first as you will be moving stuff around untill the cows come home. you would obviously take into account the dogs requirements at the stage of planning your new landscape, I feel if you got it all cleared out, you would have a better picture of what is there, prob larger space as all you are looking at right now is a heap here and a pile there, once it was flat, cleared and a blank canvas, you will soon come up with ideas, hope this helps you a bit and you get some light at the end of the tunnel, Good Luck, WeeNel.

Hello
We have the rock problem - but can't blame the old homeowners because we are them!! We didn't create the problem, our property (near Chapel Hill, NC) grows rocks...like potatoes. I agree with what the others have said --especially the suggestion by WeeNel about setting a design ahead of time so you don't have to move, purchase or waste products. Our solution to the problem: Had a load of not so great dirt/ with lots of stable clay content delivered and spread with a bobcat...it wasn't great planting dirt but it was good sculpting foundation material. It covered the rocks and the limbs/and flat stumps.... we contoured it with a bobcat...flattening the areas for the paths...adding more to make a mound for a japanese maple, etc. etc. Then better quality soil was spread on the top of areas that was to become perennial beds and annual plantings --a garden space. It worked well. We haven't done the entire property ($$) but we have a plan to do it space by space. If you have a place for it, a low to the ground deck could be built for the pups to lay on and for you to enjoy as a seating space. You may want to define future planting spaces with flagstone walkways or if you don't want to invest in that material - a pea gravel walkway is nice - others prefer less permanent walkways - mulched in. Here is a photo of what was the yard from hell. Trying to plant was digging in cement. The stumps were huge. The roots were as thick as an arm, the rocks were abundant. The bobcat can flatten and dig up and contour etc., and can be rented for you to manage or folks will hire out with their bobcat for less than 100 per hour. It did take about 5 hours to do the one space we did --the entire front yard. PS I know a lot of folks cart the trash to the landfill but what we did at the bobcat operators suggestion was dig a hole (very large) with the bobcat (it gets dug quick) and we put all the stumps/debris/rocks in the hole and covered it up ...nice and flat. I bet it was a 10 x 8 foot hole and I bet 6 feet deep. I figured as the material decayed in the hole, I would have to contend with it sinking, etc. but 4 years later it is still flat and stable I placed a post with a birdhouse on top of it dead center waiting for it to sink - but it is showing no signs.

and another

Great Job Missingrosie, it sure looks like a garden taking shape and nice and green, The only probs I see where dogs are concerned is, a lot of woodchippings or very tiny pea gravel really does cause a lot of problems for some dogs paws, I know mine used to get the gravel stuck between their paw pads and even the wood chips sometimes caused it to peirce the pads and they would end up with pussey boils between the pads, I know lots of dogs who dont seem to have a problem like that, but worth a concideration, you really have had your work cut out and I am sure now that all the hard landscapeing has been done in that area, you must be sighing with relief, but enjoying your new garden, good luck to you and happy gardening. Weenel.