Instead of going through the hassle of removing a stump, use it as a planter. Chop out a cavity in the top of the stump, fill with soil, and plant a cascading plant in it. Old logs can be moved to your gardening area and planted as well.
Hugellkultur --building raised beds over salvaged wood is a similar idea. As you can see from Dave's article, there are a lot of advantages to having a wood base under your garden beds--and if you don't have a stump or two handy, you can salvage whatever wood scraps, branches, and logs you get in pruning and land clearing around your yard. Recycle the biomass!
