"Linda" wrote in message
news:48ed60de$0$8879$c30e37c6@lon-

Thankyou YMC, your research is appreciated!
I have a rather large conifer shedding a humungus amount of pine needles
and was worried about using them as mulch. I think I shall use them in the
garden beds as a weed retardant.
It all helps!

Linda (Perth WA) :-)

Sure! No worries. I think on mature plants- the pine needles are ok and safe
to use. If used sparingly. However, on my 5+ year old yellow marguites
daises - they seemed to love plenty of the stuff.

On the roses cuts and young plants.... it seems to have a negative reaction.
But it could be that they were not doing well, anyway - being exposed to
some hot sun.

Well, best to experiment and see. What's good for my garden in Victoria may
not work so well for you in Perth - and vice versa too!

Ideally of course, I'd have stored the entire lot of fresh pine mulch in a
separate section of the garden and kept it down for 2 years to let it break
down. But I couldn't do that.