Mulching

[sebrightlover]

Are there any crops that you shouldn't use pine needles as mulch with?

My father has 7-9 pine trees, so I've definitely got access to the pine needles, unless he uses them all for his garden once I give him this idea!

 

[patandchickens]

Uh, anything you expect to do a lot of weeding by hand, unless you really enjoy wearing gloves to weed?




(In theory I'd be cautious using pine needles on anything that wants a substantially alkaline (basic, or 'high') pH, such as cabbages and broccoli. In reality I would suspect it depends a lot on what the native pH of your soil is; I mean, whether you're already kinda borderline for growing those crops or whether they're really pretty happy. I haven't frankly noticed an obvious effect of a light pine needle mulch on the apparent pH of my flowerbeds...)


Pat, who mulches several non-vegetable beds with pine needles but gets really really tired of the needle-like effects when planting or weeding there.

 

[Rio_Lindo_AZ]

What is mulch?

 

[Reinbeau]

What is mulch?

An organic layer of material, could be ground or shredded bark, chopped leaves, compost, that's put on the surface of the soil to help stop the germination of weeds and to hold soil moisture.

 

[Rio_Lindo_AZ]

ohhhhhhh,


Thanx