Pinestraw(The Ultimate Mulch)

[gadgetgary]

Curious if anyone has used this 'pinestraw' instead of mulch.

Any comments would be appreciated.

http://www.nepinestraw.com/index.html

 

[jamiel]

Down in Atlanta you see little else. They sell it by the bundle for virtually nothing...you can buy it by the sid eo fthe road, or they back a semitrailer in to Homo Depot/Lowes and sell it there. The bundles are baled with poly baler twine in a unique pink-orange color that you see scattered around as the landscapers layer it around.

 

[oldhouseman]

Look close

at the bed of my kitchen garden. Pinestraw. A basic item that we have used in the South for many years. There are pine trees all over the place here so pinestraw is a common place thing. Over time it breaks down and becomes part of the soil and we add another layer. It helps hold the moisture in the ground during the really hot part of the year.

July and August are killer months here for heat. The temperature stays in the 90's and low 100's and the humidity is always 90% or higher.

My partner uses pinestraw in his rose garden to help retain water. Since it so plentyful here it just makes good sense to use it. Of course I also keep a good supply of mulch on hand that's made from leaves and ground up trees. Tree cutting services here often are looking to give away ground up trees and I try to keep a supply on hand to enrich the garden soil.

Be sides being useful pinestraw also looks good.

 

[oldhouseman]

Here is

a shot of my partners rose garden. Pine straw is plentyful and useful to keep things in good shape. We got a trailer load of it a few weeks back to use in many areas of the grounds.

 

[oldhouseman]

Another shot

of the garden

 

[whirlcool]

But don't you find that pinestraw attracts snakes? We had it at our old house and kept finding copperheads lurking within.

 

[iheartmaytag]

This is good to know. I always thought Pine needles would make the soil to acidy for plants to grow. Thus the reason grass dies under the tree.

Speaking of gardening (slight hijack). Does anyone know what the best grass is that would grow under a cedar tree? The main tree in my front yard is a red cedar. It's estimated to be over 70 years old, so don't suggest cutting it down. My Mom favors that idea. I know Fescue won't grow, neither will Bermuda. Am about to give Zoysia a go.

 

[oldhouseman]

No snakes

Allen, I think you may have just had an area that was populated heavily with the varmits. I have not had any problems with pinestraw attracting snakes, however, as with any mulch I find a heavy spider population. I'm just careful to wear gloves in the garden. A few years ago I was bitten by a brown recluse spider and almost lost my hand. I was bitten at work of all places. The little devil was on the card reader at the employee entrance and I did't see it as I swiped my card.

I have found a number of spiders in the garden. I don't think the pinestraw attracts them. Most likely I would think the insects that want to feed on the plants attracts spiders.

My neck of the woods is known for rattlesnakes. One of my neighbors was bitten a couple of years ago when he was pulling weeds from his flower beds. I keep a few yard cats about to keep the snakes away.

I think it wise to use gardening gloves when doing any type of work with plants, pinestraw or yard work in general.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Actually azaleas and camellias like the acid soil that pine straw encourages. I really miss having it up here. When I lived in Goergia, we just took it for granted. People raked it to the curb and we would go with large sheets of plastic and gather it for our plantings.

 

[danemodsandy]

And It's Excellent Mulch...

...For gutters! Pinestraw just looooooves to settle into anything that can be filled up. Gutters, the hidden windshield wiper slot on your car, anyplace it can.

 

[oldhouseman]

Did anyone ever

use pinecones as a kid? My cousins used to collect them up for mock battles. The "long leaf" pine straw is used to weave baskets in middle and south georgia. Sometimes we would burn the pine cones in the winter in camp fires. In applachia small rattle snakes (timber rattlers) would crawl up in the trees and drop onto their prey. Nasty business.

Still, all said, pinestraw makes great material for landscaping.

Sandy, you're right about the gutters. It even seems to get into the gutters that are supposed to be made to stay clear. And those little snap on screens certainly do not work.

 

[mattl]

I have a large Austrian pine tree that sheds, every couple of years I haul out a massive amount of pine needles, it's really a chore. I've heard they are a fire hazard. Not true? I wanted to just cover them with a fresh layer of mulch, but my fireman brother told me it too much of a hazard to leave.

 

[whirlcool]

Speaking of spiders.....

When we moved into this house we had all kinds of spiders inside of it. It had been vacant for three months. I mean, big spiders, little spiders, spiders I had never seen before. They showed up everywhere! In dresser drawers, in the kitchen cabinet. We bombed the house only to have the spiders back in a few weeks. SO we went to our county extension agent and he told us to use an insecticide on our lawn as the spiders were probably living in there. We didn't have any pine mulch around the house. We put on this insecticide (you only used a very small amount, water it in and it foams up and the foam then penetrates the ground) and within an hour all of our sidewalks and the driveway were literally covered with spiders! It looked like something out of a Stephen King novel. I used the garden hose to wash them all away. But almost instantly, we didn't have any more spiders in the house since. We have a St. Augustine lawn and live in a country environment. I guess they were happy in there, the spiders that is.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~I always thought pine needles would make the soil too acidy for plants to grow.

This is what I remember hearing as well.

 

[oldhouseman]

I believe it

makes a difference what the acid level in the soil is to begin with. I only use pinestraw alone with plants I know do well with it. In the garden I am constantly working the soil to keep it rich. The pinestraw helps hold moisture in. It's a big help in the really hot and humid summers we have. By the end of the summer growing season I start working the soil again, adding compost and move on to the next planting phase to keep the garden going year round. Pine straw certainly has it's place as one of many components for landscaping/gardening.

Allen, you are certainly lucky you didn't get bit by one of those nasty little devils. It took a little over a year for my hand to heal and I had to watch the back of my left hand basically rot off for several months. There is not a treatment except to let the bite run it's course. If you try to clean out the rotted flesh it makes the poison spread. An antibiotic to keep a secondary infection from developing is all the Doctor could do. I still have a horrible looking scar on the hand that covers about half the back.

I find this a bit interesting because I thought pinestraw was in use for landscaping and gardening as a very commomplace item.

 

[danemodsandy]

Greg:

Pine needles just love the air intake on my Volvo 245 wagon, and there's no way to get them out. Little buggers!

 

[whirlcool]

Greg:

One of the guys I fly with got bit by a Brown Recluse on the thigh. He doesn't know if he got bit at home or in a hotel, (the bite itself is painless) but he ended up in the hospital for a few weeks. The skin and muscle rotted almost all the way down to the bone. For awhile the doctors thought he was going to lose his leg. He said it was truly an experience that he didn't wish on anybody. He's fine now, but all they could do was pump him full of anti biotics as wait.
In the midwest every now and then you hear of school buildings that become infested with Brown Recluses after being vacant for the summer season. They can pretty much hide anywhere!

 

[oldhouseman]

Check your

email Allen. I sent you a picture of what happened.

Greg

 

[oldhouseman]

I think,

Sandy, that is the case with many people here regarding the auto's. I find pinestraw in places around my truck engine and have no idea how the stuff got there.

Greg