I'm a novice gardener and have just started working on my garden and have found a big tree stump in a large flower bed area that I was intending to dig over and cover with decorative stones (as I would like a low maintainence garden!). The stump is about a foot higher than the soil level and I can't afford to have a professional remove it. I'm also reluctant to dig it out as I understand this is a very hard (and sometimes long) job. So, what are the other options? Can I chop it down a bit more (to soil level) and then cover the whole area (and it) with stones or will this cause problems later on? Is it also necessary to try to remove all the roots from the ground before covering - will they also cause problems later on?

I have two other trees on the other side in a flower bed area that are cut down to about 4 ft (so I'm hoping to also be able to cut them down to ground level and cover them as well). Any advice welcome.