As the holiday season grows nearer, the weather turns colder. The deceased leaves of autumn give way to the soft snowflakes of winter. If you have trees in your yard or on your property, you likely know how important it is to care for them in the weeks leading into November and December.
At times, you may have wondered, “Can you grind stumps in the winter?” After all, colder weather makes everything harder, which would seemingly make stump grinding more difficult.
It might seem counterintuitive, but stump grinding in the winter is actually the best time of year for it. Here is why.
Dead trees are dangerous in the winter
Trees that are dead or have dying branches hanging from them pose a significant hazard any time of year, but it’s not always easy to tell which branches are dead and need to be cut off when the trees are lush and full of leaves. Winter makes it obvious which branches are decaying or deceased, and you should safely remove them or the whole tree itself.
This is because dead trees and dead branches can’t support weight very well—and that becomes a factor in the winter in areas of the country that receive a lot of snow. When snow falls on trees and piles up, it can actually weigh quite a lot, causing the branches of dead trees to snap and fall. To safeguard against this, you can prune or remove any dead trees or lifeless branches; this includes grinding their stumps.
Don’t wait on stump removal
If you need more space on your land, cutting down a tree only solves half of the problem. The stump still remaining doesn’t free up any more land than you would have if the tree was still there. Stumps can also be dangerous for children and animals playing in the yard.
They can also be a de facto petri dish that attracts many types of bugs that can be destructive and diseases that might have killed your tree in the first place. Because of this, the sooner you can have a stump removed from your property and ground up, the better.
Winter means solid soil
Can you grind stumps in the winter? Yes, you can. Stump grinding in the winter has one advantage: The ground is usually solid. Frozen ground makes it more difficult to grind down stumps, but solid ground ensures that the wheels of the various machines used in the stump grinding process don’t sink down into the earth and tear everything up.
Grinding a stump during the winter also protects all the surrounding plants, crops and vegetation from being possibly contaminated or harmed by the stump’s presence. Grinding stumps all the way down to mulch prevents the unwanted attraction of various pests and insects and minimizes the risk of any diseases spreading to other nearby plants.
Call for your stump grinding today
Now that you know that you can grind stumps in the winter, give us a call at Rocky Mountain Tree Service. We’re the tree care experts that offer a vast array of tree care services, from shrub trimming and stump grinding to storm-damage cleanup and tree removal.