"The Mulching Mind"

Winterizing with Pine Straw Mulch

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I am spending so much time in the yard on the weekends preparing all my plants for winter I fugured I needed to share my finds with the rest of you.  I have collected a great article from author Terry Gray and just anded a quip or two concerning ways to enhance and enrich the natural color of the suggested type of mulch.  Enjoy and get your yard ready for the winter season!

It is considered the fact Pine Straw Mulch is a sustainable, renewable resource, it's so simple and lightweight to work with pine needle and looks very attractive especially with a top spray of EnviroColor®. Young seedlings can grow through pine needle, water can filter down through it, the ground can breathe and yet pine straw still holds in moisture. It lasts longer than other similar materials and pine needle won't shift off with the first steady rain.

In fall mulching with pine straw has an significant function since temperatures in the late fall to winter months can change radically. The ground heaves as it freezes and thaws, forcing the root systems of many fragile plants up from the soil and exposing them to the elements. Nearly all plants are much healthier when they have a bed of pine needle mulch spread over their roots.

When mulching with pine straw you should wait until the ground is frozen or just about frozen before you add the pine needle. Any sooner cover will boost mold and mildew to form on the surface. Generally, a 2- to 3-inch bed of pine needle mulch situated over the root zone of a plant will provide a noticeable difference in the plant's health. Established plants will show less stress and better growth. Just be sure to pull pine straw mulch an inch or two aside from the stems of shrubs or from the trunks of trees.  If pine needle mulch is placed up against trunks or stems, it can contain too much water and encourage decay on the bark.

Many people make the error of using less reliable fall mulch such as hay in their garden. Hay is not a good alternative to pine straw since hay often carries seeds that will sooner or later sprout and cause weed problems in your garden in the spring. Pine straw comes from several different species of pine trees that drop their pine needles by nature throughout the year. Since it is produced naturally, pine straw sometimes is referred to as the "guilt-free" mulch. Each species' of pine tree will have its own unique characteristics, such as pine needle length, wax content and pine needle flexibility. The Loblolly species of pine straw, for instance, has a pine needle length ranging from about six to nine inches, making it simple to use and shape. Also, the needle sizing is optimal for allowing the soil to breathe well while allowing first-class water infiltration.

Ideally, garden mulch for the winter is added in the fall to protect against sudden and extreme temperature dips before plants have had a chance to fully harden. A few inches of pine straw mulch can provide a cushion of as much as 10 degrees above ambient air temperatures which is just enough to keep roots growing. And certainly, a top layer of pine needle mulch offers decorative appeal and for more enriched natural pine needle color, use EnviroColor®, to make the garden looked cared for at a time when the yard can look a little underwhelming.