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Don't be in too much of a hurry to remove it. It will sink quite a bit over time. Maybe not to flat-ness, but give it some time before you decide to bag it up.
I agree. When the stump of my 3 ft. diameter silver maple was ground down, the guy doing it actually went too far with the grinding, so I had a lot of wood chips. As they sank over time, they left a depression around the roots that I wanted left exposed, so I had to fill it in with topsoil.
Might not be a great idea to mix it in with your garden soil...
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/gar...t-as-mulch.htm
Sawdust is woody material that needs nitrogen to decompose. This means that as it biodegrades, the process may draw nitrogen out of the soil and away from your plants’ roots, making them weaker. This is much more of a problem if you incorporate the sawdust directly into the soil than if you use it as a mulch, but even with mulch, it’s still worthwhile to take precautions.
https://www.gardensalive.com/product...o-with-sawdust
If you mix sawdust into your soil, nothing will grow there for a year or more. Pure wood materials like sawdust and wood shavings are super-high in carbon, and their carbon will absorb all of the plant-feeding nitrogen in your soil in its quest to decompose. After it DOES decompose, the soil WILL be richer, but for that first year or two it'll be a plant graveyard
You might try listing it on craigslist or such, offering it free to anybody who will come get it.
If you're adding the stump wood grindings to anything you're growing into the soil then you need to add a nitrogen fertilizer in with it or else the shavings will rob the nitrogen out of the soil and the vegetations basic growing nutrient.
Yes this is true, sawdust and stump grindings are not good for mulch without some amelioration as stated in #12. Leaving it in the hole is a bad idea, it will gradually decay and leave a depression - and grass will never grow right on that spot. Best bet is to get it out of the hole and replace it with soil.
Some trees have things that you don't really want in your soil. (Pine, oleander, for example.)
If you want to get rid of the shavings quickly, then bring them to a place where you can torch them. (You said it was 30F!)
The reason that the tree was cut down was that it was too close to the house. So I can't torch them in place. It would be just as easy to bag them as lawn waste as it would be to move it all to a place where I could torch it. I estimate the debris to be about 6' wide (or more) and 3' deep.
Wondering if a massive ficus tree next to a sewer pipe ( caused an overflow) should also be removed...or can copper sulfate be applied to manage the invasive roots to prevent future issues?
Cellulose needs a great deal of nitrogen to decompose. It makes poor fertilizer. A small amount can help loosen up soil and provide some nutrients, but a lot will rob the soil of nutrients A mound of cellulouse can also attract termites. You can spread it our on your lawn if there is not so much to make a thick coating. You can burn it slowly. Bag it and send it to the dump.
Quite a bit depends on the type of tree. walnut is oily and will kill plants. The grindings may make good mulch where you do not want anything to grow. Cottonwood breaks down fairly quickly. Paulownia kawakamiii supposedly makes very good fertilizer. Osage Ornange (Monkey Brain trees) are bad for plants. Sappy pine is also bad for plant growth. Maple and oak in between
You don’t want to remove the mulch- you just create a hole to fall off into/trip hazard!
So, if you do remove it- be prepared to fill it with dirt.
You can also accelerate the decaying process by adding a couple of bags of cow or chicken manure and about half a bag of 30-0-0 fertilizer. Water-in real well- this will almost double the decay rate.
Yes, my experience too. It is great mulch, but it's going to decompose as will the whole stump and roots - and as that happens, that area will sink and make a low spot. You will probably need to add some soil regardless after awhile, but you'll need to add more if you take away all the shavings.
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