Are you having a stump removed from your yard and ground up? One of the options you'll have is to refill the hole left by the stump with the ground-up stump chips. The chips disintegrate over time, eventually leaving behind enriched soil as weather blows dirt into the hole along with the chips. However, sometimes that option isn't the best for you, depending on your plans for the area where the tree was.
Convenience
First, if convenience is your game, using the chips to fill the hole is perfect. The stump removal company will remove the stump, grind it up, and then place the chips right back in the hole. All you really have to do is ensure the chips don't get dug up by curious children or pets. The hole is filled immediately, you don't have to deal with a pile of chips that need to be picked up by junk services, and your yard gets a little extra boost from the decaying wood.
Immediate Safety
Along with convenience is safety. The stump hole has to be filled in, because if you leave it empty, you have a massive trip and fall hazard in your yard. Even if you intend to fill the hole with soil later, until you do that, you have to deal with that hole. Using the wood chips to fill the hole means that the hole is already filled and done. It will settle over time, so another dip in the yard might appear, but you'll see that happening and have plenty of time to add soil before the dip becomes a real hazard.
Prior Condition
However, if the tree had any signs of disease or infestation, even if the stump didn't appear to have a problem, you don't want those chips to remain in your yard. There could be pockets of pathogens in the stump wood, or a few bugs that you just didn't see, and you don't want to leave those where they could possibly spread to more of your plants. In this case, removing the chips and filling the hole with soil as soon as possible is best.
Speedy Blending
The wood chips will break down over time, but that means that until then, the hole and chips will be visible and basically unusable. If you want to get that hole blended back into the rest of your yard as fast as possible, filling the hole with soil instead of wood chips is better.
Talk to a stump grinding company, such as Taylors Snohomish Tree Service L.L.C, about whether they can haul the chips away or if they can spot signs of disease or pests that you missed. The more detail you have, the easier it will be to make a decision.
