I love discovering new, useful things for the garden. My most recent find is pine straw mulch. For years, I’ve used white pine needles (Pinus strobus) to bed down my strawberry patch for the winter.

In some areas of the country, the choice between mulching with pine needles and wood mulch is a tough one. Since the 1980s, pine straw has been the favorite mulch in the South. It is inexpensive, ...

Q. I’ve raked up bags full of pine needles from the trees on my property. Can I use them as mulch in my garden? Won’t they make the soil too acidic? A. Absolutely use those pine needles in your garden ...

Over the years, I’ve had many questions from readers about using pine straw as a mulch in the vegetable garden. Is it a good idea? Let’s cover some of the basics. Mulching is a long-established ...

Wood mulch and wood chips will mat down to make a firm but spongy surface for your garden paths and around playsets. Pine straw is too slippery to walk on, so skip it when mulching these high-traffic ...

Right under our collective noses - and probably in your very own yard - is a great gardening tool that we have typically shunned. Pine straw. Raked up often to be disposed of, this all-natural, ...

If you have pine trees in your yard, you know just how many needles wind up falling from them every year. While some homeowners just rake them up, others want to find a way to use the needles in their ...

At this time of year, when pine trees are shedding their old needles, my neighbors Mark and Olga are happy to have me rake up the needles that fall from their trees onto the street and their driveway, ...