Yes, if you plant next to a root it will die. Right now the stump is not growing roots, so if you have cleared the hole of roots (and added some organic matter) you will be OK. good fermenting OM (NOT compost) produces jug lone half lives of order one week, which is all you need. Next year as the new tree roots push beyond the hole you may get unlucky as one rootlet encounters a hot spot. Apples are particularly sensitive and I lost a few to BW. It does not hurt to sever the biggest shallow roots with a hand saw near the stump and/or near the new hole. I have done it many times, when the soil is soft from rain, the hand saw penetrates the soft soil with surprising ease.

This past weekend was all about using the compost, not adding to it. Last year's batch has now been spread on the new garden. Of course, this means that there's space in the bins again (living in the city, I use garbage can composters), so it will soon be time to refill them again. The new plan includes: shaken-out sod removed from the new garden bed, Winter kitchen scraps that have been stockpiled outdoors in lidded buckets, a bag full of random yard waste from a very late-season yard cleanup, some old leaves from a friend (we don't really get leaves in our fenced city yard), and possibly some rabbit and/or chicken manure, since I recently found sources for both. I'm hoping that for once, I'll have enough one-time additions to actually produce some significant heat. Anything's possible, right? :-)

Egg Shells Paper towels Spoiled fruit Dryer lint Spoiled Straw Garden Trimmings Shreded Junkmail Alfalfa Meal TeePee rolls with a little bit of teepee on it UCG Yup I have one of those compost bins that used to be a wine barrel. I opened it the other day and whooo it smelled to high hell, plus lots of hairy mold. Well I added some straw and mixed it with a fork instead of turning the barrel. I guess I added too much water or too much green material. I will keep adding paper and the like to try to soak up some of the moisture. Despite all of this it was getting warm but not hot. It's interesting reading what everyone compost. Even the wife is getting all into it. Most of the time she will ask if I want something for the compost and yesterday she even with to a big bix store and bought a small garbage can to sit on the kitchen counter for composting. Larrick

Weed seeds will always be everywhere. The way to kill them in compost is to get it hot enough to reduce the seeds' viability. So you turn the compost, you leave it sit, you water it, measure the temperature, and some of the seeds will not germinate if you can get it hot enough and keep it that way until it's "soup". But more seeds will blow onto the pile, guaranteed. Don't let that stop you from using weeds in your pile if you need green material. If you want to go ahead and snip off the seed heads, fine. I don't bother. I get so many weeds in my garden beds as it is, even without adding my homemade compost. Composting is the most natural process in the world, and sometimes I think we humans make it way more complicated than it needs to be. Weed seeds are everywhere. Surrender to that, LOL!