Pine straw doesn’t float and wash out of beds as much as wood chip mulches. This helps keep walkways cleaner and further reduces maintenance.

"I'm replacing my old evergreen azaleas with native ones called Piedmont azaleas. What sort of mulch do they like better: ...

Crews disproportionately made of young, Mexican men bale pine straw by hand. They're not always fairly compensated.

But applying pine straw to residential flower beds means stripping it away from the forest floor. The rhizosphere feels the loss.

Is there any truth to the claim that pine needle mulch makes soil more acidic, or is it a myth? We looked at the science of ...

Because pine straw is organic, it decomposes over time and adds nutrients back to the soil. In flower beds, pine straw can usually be effective, functional, and relatively inexpensive.

However, pine straw settles and breaks down relatively quickly and requires frequent refreshing. A consistent three- to four-inch layer of pine straw is optimal.

Shoppers may find two types of pine needles for mulch to choose from: Long-needle pine straw comes from the longleaf pine tree, and its needles are 12 to 18 inches long. Short-needle straw, which is 4 ...