"YMC" wrote in message
u...
Hi there,

Its Autumn here in Melbourne, Australia. I have a row of conifer
pine trees - medium size - dark green leaves. They are about 6
metres tall and are due for a good prune back. I thought of lopping
off the top of the trees- mulching them including the leaves
finely - and then using them as compost for my rose garden. I'm
allergic to the pine leaves so I'm getting tree pruner to do the
job.

One old tree pruner however warned me that using fresh conifer pine
mulch was a very bad idea and may kill the roses.

Is using conifer mulch for the rose garden a bad idea?

Fresh mulch uses up nitrogen in the soil as it
decomposes. Roses need nitrogen to grow.
That's probably what your old tree pruner was
referring to. Whether conifer pine causes more
of a problem than other types of mulches, I
don't know. I would be tempted to either
let it age in a pile first (couple of months?)
before applying to your rose beds, or add
nitrogen to the soil to make up for what the
decomposing mulch is taking out.

You might try googling mulch and nitrogen
or mulch ageing to find articles on this
subject. Here's one link I found:
http://www.jfwalshmulch.com/news.ivnu
which mentions other potential problems of
fresh mulch.

Here's a link to an article from a
non-commercial site:
http://www.main.org/aog/articles/mulc.htm

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8 USA