I have a medium-sized hardwood tree that died. It is in the back corner of my lot. It died officially about 1 month ago as all the leaves turned brown, but it has been struggling for a while.

The reason I have not taken it down yet is I have a shade garden in front of this tree. I am waiting for my plants to go dormant so I can lay cardboard over the area to protect the ground and my $$ & time into the garden. I have had 2 trees removed by two different contractors and they have left a mess of holes where tree branches have fallen and poked big holes and gouges. It was my backlawn and we filled it in and reseeded. No biggie, but I would be super upset if they impaled my hosta.

Anyway, my neighbor decided to introduce himself today. I have lived there 3 years and have never seen him. He quickly turned the conversation to the tree. I understand his concern, but it JUST died. I think the root system should be intact enough to wait a month without any major risk of it uprooting. His opinion was that I should hop on it asap.

What do you think?