Question
A few years back I removed an evergreen tree. It took 3 growing seasons and a lot of seed  to get new grass to grow. I am going to remove another evergreen soon. Is there something I can do to treat the soil prior to the planting of new seed?

Thank We live in a suburb of Chicago.

Answer
The typical issue, involving the growing of grass where trees used to be, is the left over tree remains in the soil.

When the landscaper grinds up the stump a lot of wood pulp is left in the soil. The decomposing wood pulp will disappear in 2-3 years, but in the interim, the nitrogen in the soil will be tied up. The reason that the nitrogen is tied up is that this element is used in the decomposition process of the wood. Also at the end of the 3 year, the soil will likely have settled due to the disappearence of the wood pulp (which took up physical volume before). The result is that grass wont grow for 2-3 years and then you find a crater like depression in the ground.

Nitrogen is the primariy element used by grass plants for growth.

Instead of having the stump ground into the soil, try to have it dug up and hauled away. Most landscapers wont do this, however, and it is A VERY BIG JOB. Even if the landscaper does grind the stump, you should shovel as much of the woodpulp out as you can and replace this with topsoil. Do not push it back into the hole and cover (which is what landscapers will do). If you are really serious, you can dig up a 3x3x3 foot hole where the tree used to and dispose of the woodpulp/soil mix. Bring in a similar (1 cubic yard) of topsoil and replace in the hole.

A good compromise would be to shovel back up as much of the wood pulp as possible. Replace with soil (bagged or brought in in bulk depending on the size of the hole) and then leave a slight bulge (hill) to allow for some settling.This will be less than 1 cubic feet, but would still require a fair amount of soil brought in.