[StrangeRanger]

My back "yard" needs work. The guy that originally did it did a horrible job. It's spotty grass, weeds, who knows what and a bazillion rocks. The rocks range in size from pebbles to gigantic pumpkin sized. I've tried a lot of approaches like power rakes, landscape rakes, my box blade etc. All w/ limited to crappy success.

I know, the rocks will simply return every spring, but I'm thinking of basically digging up the top X inches of soil, screening it, and replanting grass. I'm thinking if I can get some grass growing and clear the top X inches of most of the rocks it will at least slow their return to a manageable rate.

But my question is this, since I do have some grass/weeds/crud how well is a screener going to work do you think? Will I simply get big clods of grass and dirt balls rolling around on the screen? I'm betting I'm going to have to do a fair amount of "hand work" to get the clod balls off. Do any of you have any similar experience? Do you have any pointers for me?

Thanks,
j