About the end of August ive take a garden rake and raked the leaves around my stand about 40 yds in all directions and planted winter wheat. This time of year when everything is brown that wheat patch looked like golf coarse green. There was no need for fertilizer because the forest floor was full of dark rich soil from years of the natural composting of leaves and debris.
I never killing anything from it, but loved hunting over it. Deer where in it and kept it mowed down, but trail camera had them coming in at night.