1) No till. It wouldn't get rid of the roots anyway, just mix 'em around and render the soil eternally bumpy. It'll get bumpy anyway as the roots decay, so why worry about it?

2) No soil. From grinding the stumps, you're going to end up with a layer of wood up top. If they leave chips, try to rake that off if you can. If sawdust, just rake it as even as possible as you're not going to be able to get rid of it (although if you can, please do, and feel free to spread it across your lawn at about 10-50 pounds per thousand square feet).

You don't want to bury any remaining wood underneath the soil or it'll try to decay anaerobically, which is going to be a mess in terms of nitrogen availability (rendering grass unable to grow well for years) and in anaerobic decay (which is toxic to most plants for years).

So yeah, don't do that. Instead, feed the new grass well and let natural decay processes work the remaining wood bits into the soil naturally and aerobically.

Awesome answer! I know it will take a little time to work itself out. We have time😀 Appreciate it!

This was what I hoped to hear for many reasons ($$ savings to not till $600). Makes sense that tilling wouldn’t destroy any roots raining deeper than the till anyway. My husband will also try to cut up any roots underground that continue to sprout seedlings after the stump grinding process in the months to come.

Thank you again! Stay safe out there!!!

The only grass that will work in the trees are the fescue varieties.

I agree with no-till for another reason. The soil sitting there already has a structure and intact biology. Structure is what allows air and water in. If you rototill it destroys the structure for months to come until a new structure develops. Further, in this case with lots of tree roots underground, rototilling will result in a hopelessly bumpy lawn later. The tiller will buck up out of the ground when it hits a root. It does not chop them up. In that area, most of the time it will be bucking instead of tilling.

No topsoil because stuff was growing fine in there. You might want to test the soil to see if it needs anything beyond the ordinary nitrogen. The best test lab is Logan Labs in Ohio. Get the $25 test and post the results here in a new topic. It is usually just as easy to fix old soil as it is to fix new topsoil, and new topsoil needs to be fixed, so just keep what you have.

Okay I just noticed you used the Woodlands tag. Are you in Texas?? If so then fescue is NOT what you want. You want St Augustine back there.

I’m sorry. No Maryland. I thought woodlands meant wooded area. Too much Covid brain going on with 60 days in isolation. Will see if I can fix it. Maybe too late to edit.

Don't worry too much about it.

Yep, go with fescues, or a good sun/shade tri-mix. What survives, survives. Toward the sunnier edges, some bluegrass will make it (it does surprisingly well on six to seven hours of sun per day). In toward the tree line, the rye and fescues will do much better, down to three or four hours of sun per day. Near the trees, nothing will survive. There may be enough sun, but the trees will suck up most of the water too quickly.

Depending on the facing, grasses may actually do extremely well right up as close as they can.

All done

! Thank you. Listen to everyone’s instructions. We ended up buying sod. 20 feet wide but hard to tell. Boy was that a LOT of work. Now to fix the grass in the rest of the yard w seeding etc.....

I know this was a while ago. If this were me, I would have used the cleared area to plant mid layer of shrubs, perennials and other flowers. Not to criticize, the new grass is not natural. It is missing the layers.....

I'd like to know if the sod survived..my neighbor's in a similar situation did not..

Sod survived well!! Two years later! Just read your question Nicholsworth

It was mentioned that you should rake up the wood chips and saw dust. It is much easier to use your leaf blower for the task. For saw dust you can make it nearly disappear by blowing it over the area. For wood chips using the engine at full speed blow them into a pile and remove.

It is so much easier on the back that bending over raking. Also the job can be completed much faster than with a rake