please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison down?

2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump killer,
is it any good?

3. All the lawn is very hilly and patchy, how is the best way of levelling
it, someone told me to put top soil down, another dig it all up and seed it,
I don't have much spare money, the lawn is 42 ft x 120 ft

any help will be very appreciated.

2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump
killer,
is it any good?

Depending on how dry the stumps are, charcoal can be an inexpensive way to
get rid of them. Drier and with big splits helps. Takes work to do --
blowing ash off, adding fresh charcoal as the old burns out every few hours,
and takes a couple of weekends. That's a ton less work than taking an ax to
them, tho.

Hiring a tree company with a grinder would be fast and effortless but much
more expensive. I've tried to rent just the machine myself and can't find
them for rent around here. But even if you did, you need a truck or trailer
to move them...not just the trunk of your car.

John
Houston

Alright, I'll bite:

Charcoal soil contamination?

I spread my charcoal ashes from the fireplace and the pit over my yard all
the time. Other than the pH which St Augustine doesn't seem to care THAT
much about...what contamination?

It puts off fumes into the air, but so do the stump grinders. What's the
quote going around? One hour of lawn mowing is equivalent to a full tank of
gas emissions in a modern car. (I looked into a push mower, but since it
doesn't even pretend to mulch, you either have to rake or mow twice a week
down here from Feb thru Dec !:)

John
Houston

"escape" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:43:41 GMT, "Tex John" opined:

2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut
about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump
killer,
is it any good?

Depending on how dry the stumps are, charcoal can be an inexpensive way
to
get rid of them. Drier and with big splits helps. Takes work to do --
blowing ash off, adding fresh charcoal as the old burns out every few
hours,
and takes a couple of weekends. That's a ton less work than taking an ax
to
them, tho.

Hiring a tree company with a grinder would be fast and effortless but
much
more expensive. I've tried to rent just the machine myself and can't find
them for rent around here. But even if you did, you need a truck or
trailer
to move them...not just the trunk of your car.

John
Houston


I've had stumps ground out for as little as 50 dollars. It is far more
effective than a slow burn because it doesn't contaminate the soil with
charcoal, and they can get the entire root flare in one fell swoop.

V





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I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them

An alternative to "getting shut" of them, worth considering at least, is
to use the stumps for plants that like to live on rotting stumps. Grind or
chip out the stumps' centers to create natural "pots" & plant in them
deciduous or evergreen huckleberry shrubs or other sorts of vacciniums
that thrive for as many years as it takes a stump to have rotted away to
nothing. Other plants that would love such a natural rotting-wood
stump-pot include peperomia, bunchberries, ferns, salal, hardy orchids,
violets, crane's-bills, rubus cultivars for fruit... Rotting stumps
increase the amount of benificial fungus in surrounding soil, so that all
garden plants benifit by the presence of stumps or deadfall. Just about
any epiphyte suitable to your temperatures might also adapt to a
stump-pot. But a deciduous red huckleberry, a stunningly beautiful shrub
with the tastiest possible fruits, really won't thrive in any other garden
setting except in a stump, so having the stumps is potentially a rare
opportunity instead of something to be shut of.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

Tex John wrote:
Alright, I'll bite:

Charcoal soil contamination?

I spread my charcoal ashes from the fireplace and the pit over my yard
all
the time. Other than the pH which St Augustine doesn't seem to care
THAT
much about...what contamination?

Most people think of charcoal briquettes when they say charcoal. The
briquettes are wood by-products with a petroleum-based binder, and other
filler. The ash from the briquettes is quite a bit different than that
from fireplace ash -- unless you're burning wood painted with oil-based
paint.

Want to have some real fun? Burn some wood painted with leaded oil based
paint. Turn your yard into a Superfund-eligible site. Don't forget to
inhale!

--
Warren H.

==========
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employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
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In article ,
paghat wrote:
I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them

An alternative to "getting shut" of them, worth considering at least, is
to use the stumps for plants that like to live on rotting stumps.


What an incredibly good idea! I have some stumps in my yard and have
put dealing with them low on the list of things to do, but I never
thought of that solution. It will work great for me.

billo

In article ,
paghat wrote:
But a deciduous red huckleberry, a stunningly beautiful shrub
with the tastiest possible fruits, really won't thrive in any other garden
setting except in a stump, so having the stumps is potentially a rare
opportunity instead of something to be shut of.


The previous owner of my place seems to have half-heartedly tried to
burn out a couple of the stumps in what is now my back yard. They
are part unburned wood, part charred. Can they be used for this?

billo

In article , (Bill
Oliver) wrote:

In article ,
paghat wrote:
But a deciduous red huckleberry, a stunningly beautiful shrub
with the tastiest possible fruits, really won't thrive in any other garden
setting except in a stump, so having the stumps is potentially a rare
opportunity instead of something to be shut of.


The previous owner of my place seems to have half-heartedly tried to
burn out a couple of the stumps in what is now my back yard. They
are part unburned wood, part charred. Can they be used for this?

billo


I don't think the percentage of charred wood would change a thing for
huckleberries, so long as there is enough left of the stump to be
decaying. Its the super-high amount of beneficial fungus in the slowly
decaying stump that huckleberries need & which they don't get without a
stump or deadfall or some rotting tree-roots to grow on, near, or amidst.
I half-buried fireplace rounds for my huckleberries, but softwood
fireplace rounds last only about four years; a real stump should keep the
huckleberries happy for a decade. When the stump is completely decayed the
huckleberries will decline unless a rotting bit of log can be shoved in
among the shrubs, or a lot of fat limbs pounded in the ground near their
roots, but nothing works quite as well as a real stump.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
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"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson

If your stumps are 2' or 3' tall, you may consider making a bird bath
out of them. I did that with an old apricot tree stump in my yard and
it came out real nice.

All it takes is a bowl of some kind to fix on top of the stump. You
can also buy a bird bath and remove the bowl to put on your stump.
There are different ways to attach the bowl on the stump, but I'll
leave that to your imagination, or the advice of your friends and
neighbors.

--------------------------
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