The last two trips north my mom has brought up bales of pine needle mulch for my neighbor who has an extensive hosta collection.....and slug problem. It worked so well for her I decided to try it. One of my other neighbors has three large pines that border my yard. I usually grumble about the pine needles on my yard. Now I am thankful for them! It was an extra large harvest since we had that wind storm in the beginning of the week.

DD used to live in Charleston, SC. They almost exclusively use pine needles as mulch around their beds there. Good acid, if you have azaleas or other acid lovers.

Actually, the acidity was one of the reasons I was hesitant to use them at first. But then I read that brown dry pine needles' acidity was negligible. I don't remember where I read that and I have no idea if it is true. Either way, I figured I would give it a shot in the few areas where I have slug issues.

We use pine needles a lot. It's readily available in our forests and we just rake up a truckload whenever we need some. Works great.

As for the acidity, it is no worse than mulching with oak leaves.

I'd bet the acidity is negligible, just as it is with coffee grounds but some people will always choose to believe they're acidic. Just the look of pine needles is so pleasing to me and even though we have to buy ours, it's worth it.

I'm sure I could get even more if I asked my neighbors if I could rake their yard

I found this article about their acidity.
http://www.gardenmyths.com/pin...

I pine for needles as well...

My neighbor used to spend money for the (in my opinion) ugly red mulch. He laughed at my pine needle driveway. One night I caught him raking up all the pine needle that had fallen in the road. Ha, he now has beautiful pine needle mulch on all his plantings - conserves moisture, doesn't allow as many insects to find refuge, and sure looks beautiful to me. Best part is that the pine needle mulch is free.

Jay thank you for that link !!! Great info

Coffee ground testing showing they are not acidic either. Just ignore those who insist they are acidic.

The only problem with using pine duff, is it is often the only thing the pine tree has to eat. Take enough of it, often enough and the pine will decline.

Well, in my case it isn't feeding the trees it came from

I have a friend with a ton of pine trees and he told us we could rake up as many pine needles as we wanted so maybe this time when I visit jen I won't have to pay for them!

It took me awhile to get used to the look of pine needles for mulch but now I agree, they look nice.

Love love love pine needles. I have some Swiss stone pines that drop needles every fall. I take part of the drop each season and use them wherever I want to suppress weeds, and I put some around my hydrangeas. I just planted a rhodie last spring and I am putting the needles around that also. Whether acid or not, they are great mulch. I personally like the look, but you could put them under your other bark or whatever mulch if you don't like the appearance. These are absolutely the best weed suppressors I have ever found.

I am loving the look where I put them. But I am wondering if the rabbits will like them for nesting.

You should see the rabbit tracks in my yard...the snow looks like a massive herd of small buffalo on skies went through it. I see no concentration of tracks near the pine needle mulched areas. They do like to hang under my blue spruce, but there is nothing on the ground there. I think I'm going to have to try live trapping or I will have nothing left by spring.