Landscaping with pine needles in flower beds is super beneficial. Pine needles will lock in moisture for your plants and vegetables maximizing the health and strength of root systems. The amount of pests attracted to pine needles is far less than other options such as mulch or pine bark.

Pine needles go overlooked when it’s time to decide on which landscape material to install in flower beds or vegetable gardens. Maybe it’s the fact that most landscaping nurseries or landscape supply stores don’t usually carry them, or maybe it’s because people prefer a loose product or a bundled product? Whatever the reasoning, devote your attention to pine needles.

Why Use Pine Needles For Landscaping

Most of the time with mulch and pine bark products, there will be a nice 4-6 month period where the colors will be bright and vibrant. The mulch and pine bark can only handle the scorching sun for so long before the colors fade and a weary gray color begins to settle in. Pine straw can last several years before needing to be replaced. If you want to keep it vibrant, you can simply apply a thin layer on top to spruce it up once a year.

Another strong benefit pine straw: its ability to block out weeds. No matter what you ultimately choose to use as your landscape material, you’ll always fight with weeds, but with pine straw, you’ll save yourself some time. The deeper you install the beds, the more light they’ll block out, containing the weeds further. The same can be said for mulch and pine bark. However, pine needles will not blow away with a strong wind or float away with a heavy downpour. Pine straw stays compact and will not move, making it a great option for hills and slopes as well.

Environmental Impact With Pine Needles vs Mulch, Rubber or Pine Bark

After you factor in all the performance upgrades pine needles provide, it’s time to evaluate the economic and financial impacts. Most products such as mulch, pine bark or rubber mulch contain dyes and are not harvested naturally exhausting earth’s resources.

Using pine needles is as natural as it gets. They fall off of the tree limbs vs. mulch or pine bark which is shaven off the sides of trees that have been cut down in the forest to be used for lumber or numerous other purposes. Rubber mulch brings the worst economic impact to the table, so let’s not go there.

Switching to pine straw is just another way to create a beautiful landscape while lending a helping hand to Mother Nature.

The Savings Are Real When Landscaping With Pine Needles

Beyond what positive economic impact pine needles provide, there’s another impact, financial. To cover a 10’ x 10’ area at 2.5” – 3” depth, you’ll need approximately 11 2.5 cubic ft bags of either mulch or pine bark at about $2.50 per bag. Using pine needles, you need only two bales at $5 – $7 per bale. Per a 1,000 sq ft area, that’s a cost of $275 plus tax for mulch and pine bark vs. $100-$140 for pine needles. That adds up!

In sum, using pine straw instead of mulch will reduce the cost of your landscaping project, and give flower beds longevity, while providing positive economic impacts. For all of these reasons, landscaping with pine needles should be your go-to choice. There are many different ways to to incorporate pine needles into your landscape environment. Not matter how you decide to incorporate them, know that you’re making a difference and that is what counts more than anything.

If you have questions or would like to see if we are in you service area, we’re always here to help in anyway.

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Creating organic compost can be a very fun and satisfying project for everyone in the family. It’s a great way to spend quality time outside, while getting some Vitamin D. You’ll reap many benefits from composting such as a healthier, less expensive alternative to many garden and potting soil products. Composting is such a simple process that utilizes your table and kitchen scraps to make an incredible super soil for your garden. There are several different techniques to use and finding out which one suits you best is easy. And as always, our greatest friend, Mother Nature, will greatly appreciate your contributions in more than one way.

How To Create Organic Compost

When it comes to setting up an area to start composting, there are several ways to go about it. The first step is to locate an area where you’ll either use a composting container or an area in the ground to place your scraps. Whether you choose to use the composting container or not, your scraps will eventually end up on the ground, so you’ll need an easy-to-access location for this process. There are a few different methods for the actual composting process.

Small Garden Organic Composting Methods

The simplest way is to go from table scraps to soil, bypassing any containers. This is the method I use when composting; it’s so straightforward and easy. What I do is take all my scraps such as fish bones, chicken bones, egg shells, coffee grounds, banana peels, etc… place them in a plastic bag in a designated container inside my house. Then at the end of the week, I go to my compost pile, dig a few feet down and dump the matter inside. After I dump everything inside, I stir the compost pile up to spread all the nutrients around the ground soil, and this also helps aid the decomposition of the organic materials.

Large Garden Organic Composting Methods

Another method is using a composting container outside that holds all the organic matter either on the ground surface or up on a stand to prevent critters and pest from scavenging and creating a mess. You can purchase containers made for composting or create your own by using trash cans with a few holes in the lid. You can’t go wrong with either of these.

If you decide to use a container, let the matter build up to fill the container and stir once a week. You’ll let the material sit there for 3-4 months which is enough time to start to decomposition before you dump everything in the ground to start the next step of breaking the materials down. Usually, you’ll use this process in larger scale operations.

Types of Vegetables and Scraps Used for Composting

Now that we’ve established what set up we’ll use and the location of our compost piles, we can talk about what type of stuff we can use. The basics are any scraps you might have from cooking such as egg shells, the leftovers from any fruits and veggies. Some of the not so basics you can use are grass clippings, and weeds you’ve pulled from flower beds spent vegetable crops and fish and chicken carcasses.

What a lot of people don’t know is that you can also use recycled newspaper and shredded mail. It’s a little too much to tackle in this blog, but you can check out more info here. Now to create a solid base, you can use starters such as leaves from the lawn or coffee grounds. The cool thing about coffee grounds is many places like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts bag up their used coffee grounds for people to come pick up for FREE!

You should allow 8-12 months for everything to break down and decompose before using the compost for any gardens or flower beds. Once everything is broken down and installed in your garden, yields and health will increase and most of all; IT’S FREE!! You’ll save so much money each year by eliminating bagged soil purchased for your needs.

Environmental Friendly Impact Created by Organic Composting

By choosing to start organic compost, you’ll save money, upgrade the health and quality of your gardens, get involved in a self-efficient lifestyle and the most important of all, the positive environmental impact. Most landscape materials use peat moss that is being harvested at an alarming rate. Peat moss cycles through 30-33% all known carbon emissions. That’s the number one contributor on this planet, including our forest and we all need to do our part in trying to protect them, one bag at a time. There are other peat moss alternatives to use if you still choose to purchase bagged and loose products. Get out there and start your organic compost garden today!!

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Many people will claim that going organic is expensive, they’re incorrect. Sure if you shop at your local fresh market or wholefoods for produce and meats it could add up, they’re specialty health food stores, meaning big$$$. Instead try hitting the local farmers markets or produce stands. Many of the growers practice organic methods and use chemical free methods for pest control and provide many products for a cheaper price than grocery chain stores. One more suggestion would be to grow your own produce.

Growing organically is the best option to protect our food supplies, environment, health and well being, no matter the style, size or location of your lawn and garden. This will harnesses the natural cycles and processes that promote plant growth. It could be something as simple as using a hydroponic tower or raised vegetable gardens. There are many different styles of hydroponic towers and vegetable gardens to choose from. You may want to do a little research to figure out one that suits you and your lifestyle. Any method you choose, upgrades the benefits and quality of life that GMO products just don’t provide. Not just for you but for the planet as well.

Adding organic matter at the beginning, and regularly throughout the year, is the key to making happy and healthy soil. We keep our garden supplies well stocked (even in summer) and well staffed by qualified professionals.

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