Ignore the bad lawn, I’m working in the fall to make it healthier (or later depending on how this all goes).
As the title says, just ground down a stump but the company left it like this. It was an Arizona Ash tree with hypoxylon canker so we had to cut it down.
Should u leave it like this to decay naturally or would it be better to spread it uniformly across my lawn? It’s about a 2-3” tall mound but I don’t want to rake it over whatever grass is there and kill the grass.
So far it looks like I can hasten the process with blood meal and frequent watering and turnings
I’ve asked a few subreddits (arborist, lawn care, landscaping) and have had mixed results. I called the company that did the work and they said that if we remove it then it’ll cause a sink spot in the lawn.
So now I’m leaning towards listening to the company but I wanted to get y’all’s insight too since this is our area.
I don’t want to give the chips away as it might infect other plants, so I’m thinking of letting Mother Nature handle it. But if y’all have a different opinion, suggestions, or any tips on how to hasten the process please let me know.
I was planning on aerating and overseeing some natural grasses in our area but now this area I don’t think will be of much help. The soil is a lot of clay as well.
Thanks!
by BohemianJack
4 Comments
Just leave it, it will be fine. That’s what I would do.
You’ll want to pull out most of the chips and mix in topsoil. Wood chips aren’t great for regrowing grass because they’re mostly carbon, and as they break down they steal nitrogen from the soil. The roots will also decay over time and can leave the lawn with low spots, so it’s tough to get it perfectly flat right away.
Source: had a giant ash taken out of my yard 6 years ago and still struggling to grow
Leave it, can rake down the mounds if you want
I had two massive Arizona Ash removed (big enough that we had to pull permits from the city) after the 2021 winter storm and I would just mow over the mulch piles on the lowest setting everytime I would cut the surrounding grass. It turned the bigger chips into smaller chips really quickly and spread them throughout the yard (don’t forget to wear your eye protection!). I think that regardless of whether you leave the chips or spread them, you’re going to have to address the sunken earth eventually when the massive root system below starts to decompose.
Four years later, I’ve had to redress with additional soil and compost every spring and fall due to the decomposing roots causing sink holes but nothing that a few bags of soil didn’t solve. This has been the first spring that didn’t require supplemental soil and the yard is now mostly level again. It looks like the trees were never there.