Faded Pine Straw Revived

Using Mulch in Water Conservation

Joe's Gardening Blog has been a favorite read of mine ever since I first planted some catnip for my kitties.  If you want some easy to follow advice on how to conserve water continue here....

 

We at EnviroColor® hope you enjoy expanding your gardening and lawn care knowledge.  We look forward to you joining the dialog to create beautiful landscapes while continuing to conserve our natural resources.

Colored Mulch Volcanos

Great stuff posted by the Christian Science Moniter.  Enjoy, and don't form mulch volcanos!  If you want to know more look here...

 

                        

New Trees and mulched tree rings at your club

Great ideas on how to make your course play "new"  Just remember the tree rings and the pine straw!

http://grounds-mag.com/golf_courses/grounds_maintenance_improve_course_strategic/

                       

Slopes and lawn/groundcover maintenance

These are some great ideas to deal with the issues slopes create in our care of our lawns and gardens.  Mr. Fech points out some great ways to deal with water, fertilizer and ground cover.  To learn more follow here...index.html

As you  can see pine straw is used widely in the southeast because it can stay in place better than wood mulch.

University of Florida. A Gators guide to mulch.

Mulch Madness

What is mulch? Mulch is a product used to cover the soil. It is often composed of tree bark, needles, wood, leaves, or grass. Sometimes mulch is made from gravel or pebbles or other inorganic materials such as recycled tires. Spreading mulch over planting beds helps conserve water and provides a beautiful uniform texture and color. Mulch is an essential component of any Florida-Friendly Landscape.

Why Use Mulch?

Mulch not only beautifies a garden, it benefits your plants and soil. Mulch protects plants' roots from extremes of heat and cold, by creating a buffer between the soil and the air. It keeps soil moist longer after irrigation, giving roots extra time to soak up the water. This saves you water and money.

In areas of deep shade, where turf and ornamentals won't thrive, consider mulch as a Florida-Friendly alternative to leaving the ground bare. Mulch can also be used as an attractive groundcover where it's difficult to mow or irrigate. And mulch doesn't just help your plants: it can add nutrients to the soil as its organic components decompose, increasing soil's fertility and improving its aeration, structure, and drainage. Mulch can even help reduce erosion and protect plants from certain diseases.

   

mulch_madness.shtml

Lawn or garden issue? Talk to a Pike Family Nursery Staff member

 

Pike Family Nursery...A caring informative staff carrying innovative products.

Check out all your gardening needs at in the metro Atlanta area at  Pike Family Nurseries.  Their staff members listen, empathize, articulate, react and necessitate every patrons needs.  Let Pike be your one stop shop for any garden or lawn care issue.  They are the most ready and willing team of professionals to tackle any problem.  People who had the "got gray mulch" problem? 

 

                          

                                                          

Problem solved by the innovative, knowledgeable Pike Family Nursery team.

http://www.pikenursery.com/

Color Coverage and Value

 

Question: what is more valuable to your property, a thick layer of pine straw or great color all season long maximizing your dollars spent on your ground cover? 

This is highly subjective and every opinion is valid.  Commercially, property owners and managers are realizing that laying pine straw every six months keeps a nice thick layer of ground cover, but the color seems to last 60 days or so.  Most are searching for alternatives to keep the curb appeal popping all season long while reducing their expenses in this economic climate.  The future for commercial ground cover is coverage, color and value, not bale counts or yards.  Differentiate your property now!  Let the EnviroColor® service team help.

 

 What is your preference?

                      

Quick Curb Appeal Ideas

Simple Landscaping Improvements Add Value:
Planning to sell you home? Improve curb appeal with simple landscaping improvements and increase your property value. Choose your landscaping project carefully. The value of landscaping is directly related to its permanence, yielding up to a 100% return on your investment. We can not tell you how many times we have driven up to a fantastic home only to be told by the buyer to drive on. You don't want that to happen to you.
Trees add the most value, following by flowering shrubs. Plants that need to be replanted every year or require excessive care and pruning hold the least value but depending on the time of year make the greatest impact.
Keep you design unified and proportional to the size of your yard. An overpowering landscape may be attractive for a city park, but a turn off to prospective buyers. Remember they are going to be caring for the landscaping and if they think it will be too much work that is a turn off.
Cover the difficult area. Bark chips, mulch and crushed rock are good solutions for the areas of the yard where it's difficult to grow or mow the grass. Remember the cheapest cover in the GA and AL areas is pine straw.  Plus with the a treatment of EnviroColor solutions you can keep that freshly laid look for 6-9 months instead of 60-90 days.

What is Pine Staw? A clincal explination

PINE NEEDLES
Mulch
Opportunities for harvesting pine needles for mulch in south-eastern United States, where fast growing pine forests and plantations are abundant (P. elliottii, P. palustris, P. taeda), is reviewed by Beckwith et al. (1995) and Stanton and Hamilton (1993). In this region, the use of pine needles for mulches in landscaping has become popular. Consequently, the carpet of pine needles under a pine stand has become a valuable resource and harvesting and selling of pine "straw" has become a profitable enterprise for forest farmers. Since the pine mulch breaks down rapidly and must be replaced at 1-2 year intervals, there is an almost unlimited market for this product.

The needles of P. elliottii and P. palustris are long and can be readily baled. The needles of these pines provide an excellent ground cover. Pinus taeda needles are shorter and more difficult to bail but are also an excellent ground cover.

Needles fall throughout the year, but in south-eastern United States, heaviest needle shedding occurs between September and October during normal weather conditions. December, January and February are good months for gathering pine straw, provided that the bales are delivered directly to the dealer or stored under a shelter.

Pine straw is usually gathered into piles with a pitchfork or mechanical rake for bailing. Where the understory vegetation prevents the use of tractor mounted rakes, pine straw is raked and piled entirely with pitchforks. Baling pine straw is a labour-intensive process. One person loads the straw into the baler with a pitchfork and another ties the wire that binds the bale and a third person stacks the bales. A three-person crew can produce from 250 to 300 bales per day. Higher production can be achieved if partial windrows can be formed and the straw then fed into the pickup reel of the baler, where it is mechanically tied with twine. The most efficient production is attained when the straw is raked into long, clean windrows, picked up mechanically, baled and pushed out to the side. Production by this method can achieve 1 000 bales per day.

Pine straw harvesting can begin in pine plantations as early as age six when yields as high as 110 150 bales/ha, every two years, have been reported. Fifteen-year-old pine forests can yield in excess of 440 bales/ha. Vigorous young to mid-age forests will yield more pine straw that older, lower vigour forests. A low annual yield is 110 bales/ha, an average yield is 150 bales/ha and a high yield is 220 bales/ha.

Yields of pine straw can be increased through fertilization. Bales free of cones, hardwood leaves and limbs are the most desired. To produce clean bales of pine straw, stands should be free of undergrowth and debris. Mechanized bailing operations on good sites can produce 1 000 bales/day. Bales of pine straw currently sell for US$2.50 wholesale and US$4.00 retail. Many forest landowners often sell their pine straw to producers who do the raking and baling. The producer pays by the bale with prices ranging from US$0.25 to US$1.00 per bale.

Advantages of pine straw harvesting in pine forests include:

it provides a source of income while trees are being grown for timber or pulpwood;
weed control and fertilization to increase pine straw production may improve timber productivity;
forest land owners can obtain a reasonable income with little personal input by leasing pine straw bailing rights to a commercial producer.

http://www.putnalspinestraw.com/

 

Mulch an entire backyard for $40.00

My two dogs have ruined my backyard!  I noticed at the local dog park they used a nice dark brown colored mulch and I knew this was the solution to my problem.  I went to my local 'big box' home improvement center after I determined how much mulch was needed to turn my dilapidated back yard into a fun, save and aesthetically pleasing dog run.  I figured I need approximately 50 cubic yards to get the proper thickness to deal with drainage etc.  so each bag covers 2-3 feet at 1 1/2 inches thick at nearly $4.00 dollars per bag, whoa!  Too expensive for this frugal consumer.  I called a couple of mulch yards and still out of my budget.  Now I Google colored mulch.  Up pops "EnviroColor."  This water-based, non-toxic solution is harmless to the environment, surrounding plants and wildlife.  Cool!  I called the local tree service and they dropped off a truck load of "free, yes free"  hardwood mulch.  I toiled with the wheelbarrow and pitchfork to fill my ailing back yard with the wood chips and then got out the old STIHL backpack sprayer and followed the instructions on the 64 ounce bottle of EnviroColor I purchased on line.  I will admit it took me a while and a couple of  coats to get my desired color, but wow what an great, inexpensive perfect solution to my situation.  So after a $40.00 spent on EnviroColor and a wee bit of elbow grease, I have a beautiful back yard dog run that is safe for the pets and english ivy that is creeping through the fence.  So, instead of spending hundreds of dollars, or maybe even thousands to have it installed I got exactly what my pups needed  with the added benefit of fixing the erosion issue that had developed since the dogs had killed all the grass.  I promise to post a picture of the end result.  I really wish I would have done before and after to ensure everyone could see what a transformation was made.  If you have the time and are interested in a inexpensive colored mulch alternative, free mulch from your tree service and EnviroColor is the way to go! 

www.envirocolor.com