Your views on pine straw ...

I just don't like the way the pine straw looks for a mulch. It looks so rough and not at all nice looking for the home landscape. I am used to the more refined look of the hardwood mulch or mini pine bark nuggets look. Are there any redeemable qualities of the pine straw that far outweigh what I currently think about the virtues of hardwood mulch?

Last year I mixed some pine straw in my soil to try to amend a new flower bed and that was surely a mistake. I ended up dumping most of it in my compost pile, ... happy to get it out of my flowerbed. I've got a bad taste in my mouth now about pine straw. What do you guys think about it?

Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't really like it. It blows around and I just don't like the look.
The only time I've used it is in a bed with pine trees in it. Since the needles were going to drop there anyway, might as well use it. I did use newspaper (as weed block) and mulch first, then laid down the pine straw. The reason was to help keep down the weeds.
Barb

I tried pine straw for a few years, hoping it would help balance my alkaline soil. It didn't, and since it had to be replaced yearly and rapidly turned unattractive to me( don't like the "gray look" of old pine straw), I switched to cyprus chip mulch. Bottom line, they both work for weed suppression (although I found you need a thicker application of pine straw to achieve the same level of suppression); I think it's probably a matter of personal preference. Some people hate the look of wood chips, and some "Nazi" developments have rules about what mulch is "acceptable". I avoided hardwood mulch because we have a problem with termites here...

Pine straw is a bit of a fire hazzard. When it's dry it goes up fast. Also it seems to attract bugs. Termites are a problem here so we have to think about that. I can tell you pine bark chips are a fest for termites. I would not use that at all.

Actually, the state arboretum in NC has done a study and found that mulch does not attract termites any more than pine straw, stones, or no mulch,. The termites are attracted to the warmth and humidity of mulch, no matter what it's made of. If you have a termite control system for your house,(and who with a wooden house around the coast here doesn't) hard wood mulch won't cause you to have termite problems.
I'll try to find a link to the study.
Barb

I use a combo mulch made of mostly cypress, cedar and pine all shredded pretty well. Works and it doesn't seem to be bug friendly. It seems to me red bugs like pine straw. Palmetto bugs seem to like it too. I have no proof on that but pine straw and those two bugs seem to go together.

Core,
I've heard that also, that palmetto bugs like pine straw.
Barb

The only use I would have for the needles is on a slope, they do tend to stay put on a hillside. I no longer have any slopes at my house so all I use is a combination of compost and double hammered hardwood. The dh hardwood is very fine and breaks down in about a year which adds good stuff to the soil.

I have pine trees, so it matters not what kind of mulch I have in 80% of the garden, it will be pinestraw or mulch covered with pine straw! LOL

I have found in my flower beds that the hardwood mulch does seem to decompose much better 0 thus adding the nutrient (I hope) to the soil. I had to use cyprus (or cedar not sure) one year - due to the drought the hardwood was near impossible to find and mulch in general wasn't easy to find... it is still there!! I am not fond of the look (just my opinion) but love the look of the pine needles I rake up and put around my pine tree, it is also in my hosta bed, though there is no point in mulching that bed as it is and has been pine needles for over 20yrs :-) I have a picture... though it is much fuller now - but during winter all you really see is the pine needles...

That is a beautiful bed GardeningNC and I love the idea of in situ mulch. No sense in not using what is given freely and it is even spread in the garden for you. You gotta love that.

I enjoy the icicles on my camellia. LOL> I should add that I get a fair amount of pine straw mixed in with my mulch.

ardesia, thanks, I have to rake the pine needles a few times every fall... but it is kinda fun and there is no rush so i get to as I can. :-) When i dig in that area it is pine needles about two to five inches deep and below that it is just decomposed pine needles, it seems to be good for the plants so far - started using the 'bed' about three years ago...

CoreHHI - pinestraw mixed with mulch, i wonder how it is you end up with that mix... how does it look? Do you like the mix? You should post a picture of the icicles on the camellia - mine isn't even thinking about blooming yet! Wait - Icicles!! We have had cold weather but nothing that would give me icicles!!

The pine straw makes the "icicles". The pine is actually unwanted. I have a lot of tall pines that drop cones and straw everywhere. This time of year it looks like I use pine straw as mulch and it looks good until it turns grey. I usually rake it off come spring and get the pine cones out of the beds or I'll end up with little pine trees growing everywhere.

heheheh - too cute! I can picture the needles hanging on everything, lol!

I got lucky in one of the pines in my front yard is a short needle pine and has beautiful cones... they have sap on the very edges - looks like i took time and painted them then put 'glitter' or something on them.

I may be in the minority here, but I prefer the natural look of pine needles, which is good since I live in a pine forest! :) As said, it's free, and azaleas and camellias seem to love it.

As for the Palmetto bug thing, I'm pretty sure they are everywhere, even if you have no mulch at all. ;->
Deb

P. bugs are there whether you have pine straw or not, I swear. And this time of year they are in the house, too. Too cold ooutside for them, too.

My cat love to chase them and then carry them around.

She also chases and retrieves wadded up paper balls, and drops them in my lap when she wants me to throw them. So imagine my surprise the first time that she confused a palmetto bug for a paper ball.

She was confused with my rather exaggerated response. LOL

Ewewwwww! I believe I would've had an exaggerated response, myself!! OMG! Cannot stand the sight of those giant things. LOL.

I like pine straw.

My goal is to have the ground covered with plants, but I'd probably have problems with mildew then. Still, a gal can dream, right?

You know what palmetto bugs love?? Yucca. I have a couple of yucca and they are loaded with them, the palmetto bugs seems to use them as a nest at the base.

Palmetto trees too. If you walk along the Battery in Charleston at night they come out of the palmettos and dive bomb you. They seem to like those cosy little nooks and crannies that palmettos and yuccas have..

I love my pine straw. Just put out 40 bails last week. One problem I found with the cedar, cypress, and pine bark mulch is that it compacts the soil. I like the long leaf pine because it stay red and does not turn that grey color that someone mentioned.
As for Palmetto bugs--- they also live in pine trees. Pull off the bark on pine trees and there they are. On the coast we have tried to eliminate pine trees because they don't fare too well with our hurricanes.

The oak trees seem to cause the most problems around here in high winds. What happens to a pine has a lot to do with many factors. Big thing seems to be if it was being grown for timber or not. The ones planted for timber are to close together and get really tall and skinny, not really sturdy if you cut a bunch down and stick a house in the middle of them.

I have used pine straw and the fancy red dyed mulch. I prefer the red dyed mulch due to pine straw fading out it's color very quickly in the hot sun where I am at, for at least near the house. The red dyed mulch (wood chips dyed red) kept it's color much longer, about 1 year, with no reapplication needed at all. For areas that are further away from the house, say like the tree border area, I do like pine straw there as it is constantly replaced by faling pine needles under the pine trees and it has more that natural woodsey look. It's a personal preference things.

Termite Note- for the red mulch near the house, I do use about about a 6'' wide band of decorative red brick rock mulch (purchased at Home Depot) to a depth of .5-1'' deep to keep the wood away from the base of the house from termites. The colors match very well, you really can't tell a difference and it keeps my foundations very dry. I picked up that tip from my termite guy when he did the yearly inspection. Now my moisture levels are where they should be. :o))

r30

This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 8:58 AM

This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 9:00 AM

We like pine straw because it does not blow around and scatter as much. The straw weaves together and holds itself in place pretty well. With an outdoor pool in back, I want the mulch to stay put.
It does require a new layer each spring. I just get a truck full of bales delivered and spread it around. It takes a few days and maybe some rain or water to settle down into its more compact blanket.