| By :
Victoria Gates
Adding mulch is one of the easiest and most beneficial gardening tasks. Mulching provides several wonderful benefits for your southern garden! Pine straw is a popular choice for vegetable gardens as well as pathways and general landscape areas. When applying pine mulch to your landscape, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. One big mistake people make when adding mulch is that they don't apply enough, or they apply way too much. To smother pesky weeds and retain adequate soil moisture, a two to three inch layer of mulch is needed. Less than two inches of mulch may let enough light through to allow weed seeds to germinate. While too much mulch could smother plants and bring more harm than good. Since organic mulches break down naturally, you need to replenish the pine straw from time to time. Add a fresh layer of mulch to your garden about twice a year, in spring and fall for the best benefits. In the process of breaking down, pine straw will also improve your soil's fertility and its organic content. Be sure when applying mulch to give your plants an inch or two of space, never apply the mulch right up against the plant stems or trunks. Pine straw is popular mulch for pathways and garden areas. It keeps the soil, and many soil born diseases from splashing up on lower plant leaves and helps to make paths less muddy after rain. Pine straw mulch is sold in bales. The needles are easy to distribute by hand and the bales often cover up to 60 cubic feet of space. You might have heard the debate that has been around for many years regarding the acidity of pine straw causing problems in a garden landscape. Many people believe pine straw mulch is highly acidic and that it will turn your soil highly acidic and damage non acid-loving plants. It has been shown however that although pine straw in itself is slightly acidic, as it breaks down it becomes less acidic over time and has no real negative effect on soil acidity or plant health. There are many pine straw delivery companies in the south. You can easily find wholesale dealers online. You can also contact your local garden centers or nurseries for information on where to purchase pine straw for your garden. It is a natural earth-friendly choice that will improve the health of your garden, we think you're going to love it.
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