I will have to remove about 6 stumps, 18-20 inches in diameter.... any help or ideas are VERY much appreciated!!!!



"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." Dr. Suess

One, six or sixty, it still comes down to using the stump grinder to effectively rid the ground of the trunks.
Such amount of wood might be put aside for future drying and used as a mulch around perennials, evergreens and shrubs.

With such amount of wood stumps, the soil there may be quite deficient in nutritive value for whatever you might think to replace them.
A layering of soil from compost or topsoil might be used right away to offset any drainage issue that might result from such loss of roots which did an effective job of moisture retention.

The area of moisture that was controlled by the roots might be wide and you'd be wise to stay aware of how much is received from rainfall.
It could be a prelude to flooding and therefore, depend on how good the drainage is away from the building.

The quickest, but most expensive, method of stump removal is to chips them out. You can rent a stump grinder from your local tool rental place or hire one of your local tree cutters to do that. If you have access to a farm tractor you could try pulling them out (a team of Ox's can do that too), but that can be tough to do. A cheap, but long term, way to get rid of those stumps is to bore several fairly large diameter holes, fairly deep into the stumps and fill those holes with a high Nitrogen fertilizer, if you want those stumps gone next week this is not the solution, however.

Kim, why didn't I think of that when we were struggling for about 4 or 5 hrs. two weeks ago trying to get the roots of that forsythia out? Great idea.. Let a landscape specialist use the tree stump grinder. We had them to do that for a hugh holly bush that was in our front yard when we moved here 3 yrs. ago. Thanks for the idea. Watch out those other two forsythia bushes!