My grandmother used to burn everything -trash, limbs, etc., on spots where she was planning a new garden. Made it much easier than removing sod and got rid of her waste. Her place was a dairy back in the '40s. The area later turned into a town and she gradually sold off pieces of land until she was down to just her house and 'lot'. The neighbor she sold to adjacent to her was a fireman, so they let her continue the burning thing until she died in 1996. The soil was very acid, so it helped in that way too.
