I just had a 50 year-old Maple tree taken out, since it was too close to my house and much too large for my tiny city garden. Now I have a stump, about three foot in diameter. I like the stump, but I want to make sure that the roots cease growing as soon as possible. How do I do this? It is still much too green to imagine drilling into it, and herbicides are probably out of the question, since I have plants next to the stump.

Perhaps you could use a systemic herbicide. For example, take some Roundup and dip a sponge on it. Then wipe the sponge on the stump and hope it absorbs it. Certainly not guaranteed to work but at least it will not harm the surrounding plants. I was told by a botonist friend that this is how they kept weeds under control at the university's green house.

I think you have a very short amount of time after cutting down a tree in which to paint the cut surface with neat glyphosate. (Active constituent in roundup) Like a few minutes or so. If the tree continues to shoot i'd use a battery drill to drill holes at an angle into the cambium layer, the growing layer under the bark, and inject straight glyphosate into the holes. Then plug them with a bit of wood or whatever. Drill the holes so they run under the bark not straight into the wood. It won't hurt the surrounding plants. I bet the stump is a beauty. It'll make a nice feature.

Here's another systemic herbicide that will not harm surrounding plants. I'm planning on getting some to kill poison ivy growing around my property. It is also listed as being effective for maples. It's called vine-x

Thanks for the pointer to vine-x; it seems to be the least harmful of the herbicides that I have heard about. I have just written to the company, asking whether they believe it will work now, a week after the tree was cut down.