Preparing new ground

Two years ago I along with my grandsons cleared a small bit of ground in a field that has been left to go wild, but unfortunately we couldn't do any work on it last year, but hopefully we should be able to work on it this year, but having a look at it the other day it has reverted back to a wild field again, so looking for ideas on how to clean it out again, I would like to go no dig, but I don't have sufficient home made compost for that to work and no access to barrow in anything like manure, but there is a lot of dead wood from hedge cuttings near by and I could get my shredder into the field, so do you think that would work or would I just be wasting my time