Using Stump Grindings As Mulch

Are wood chips from stump grinding safe to use as mulch?

Wood chips from stump grinding are safe to use as mulch around garden and landscaping beds if a 2- to 4-inch layer stays on the surface, on top of the soil, not mixed into active planting areas. Tree removal and stump grinding produce wood chips naturally; wood chips from stump grinding make natural mulch for garden and landscaping beds. Fresh wood chip mulch on top of soil temporarily reduces available nitrogen near the soil surface and affects young plants, and surface mulch of wood chips does not rob soil of nitrogen. Wood chips should age several months before use around young, sensitive plants and in vegetable garden beds, so fresh chips are not mixed into active planting areas.

Before use in flower beds or vegetable garden beds, wood chips should age several months; chips from stump grinding provide natural mulch around garden beds. A balanced compost pile repurposes stump grindings on-site; a compost pile becomes a useful soil amendment for planting projects within a season or two, and chips in a compost pile mix with green materials.

Stump grindings from a diseased tree, however, shouldn't be used around susceptible trees as mulch in garden and landscaping beds.

Should I mulch my garden with stump grindings or not?

Stump grindings are not ideal garden mulch for flower beds or vegetable gardens where a stable, long lasting mulch is wanted, but stump grindings make decent mulch in low priority areas and enhance the garden. Stump grindings are a fresh wood mulch mixed with soil, and stump grindings contain shredded wood, dirt, or soil. When wood chips from a stump grinding decompose in soil, wood chips from a stump grinding tie up nitrogen. Leftover stump material changes soil structure. Leftover stump material changes the soil's ability to hold moisture, and leftover stump material changes the soil's ability to hold nutrients.

Stump grindings should not be tilled into the soil, and a property owner spreads stump grindings as a thin layer of mulch somewhere else in the yard. A property owner rakes stump grindings out flat on the grind site, and stump grindings break down over time. Wood chips from stump grinding break down faster than bagged hardwood mulch, so in low priority areas wood chips from stump grinding work best as a ground cover to keep weeds down. Stump grindings are piled anywhere you need organic matter, or stump grindings are piled where you want to keep weeds down. Piled on the garden, stump grindings enhance the garden and keep the garden's weeds down.