Billy wrote:
In article ,
Jeff Thies wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Bill who putters wrote:

In article ,
Jeff Thies wrote:

Billy wrote:
snip


s of color pictures, but overall it
seems to me to be mostly flash.

Anyway, lasagna gardening, the above URL calls for 2 vertical ft. of
mulch on the vegetable beds, mine are usually 3 - 4". Just make sure
that there is always mulch, no matter how thick it is. If you are
getting weeds, you'll probably want to increase the depth of the mulch.

I have an abundance of pine straw. My take is that this doesn't make
good compost as it breaks down slowly, but makes good mulch.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/...335925165.html

I'll get this started today, in the meantime I have an abundance of
green, and not much other brown. So, I'm thinking... We had at one time
a horse in the neighborhood (I live in Atlanta proper) and chickens
across the road (I now know why a chicken crosses the road: It doesn't
care). But the chickens are all long gone.

I've had a long running compost pile at the dead end of my street
that leads to the woods. Unfortunately it now looks more like a garbage
dump, with shingles and all kinds of plastic tossed on. Sigh! Seems like
someone can always turn a good idea into hell. The reverse is not so easy.

Sometimes I think I live here mostly for amusement.

Jeff

Well, duh, I can hear the cosmic laughter from here ;O)

I don't see anything wrong with making conifers part of your mulch, but
remember that the soil flora and fauna are counting on the breakdown of
the mulch for nourishment, So, make sure that there is always some
leaves or straw in the mulch as well.

If you ever find a reference to pine needles lowering/not lowering pH,
I'd like to see it.

It looks like a short term spike when they are composting:

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/...s-compost.aspx

The acidic conditions created by pine needles are only transitory. As
organic materials decompose, they typically cause an initial decrease in
pH (increase in acidity), but over time, the pH rises so that the
acidity of the composted material becomes near neutral.

Even if pine needles did not equilibrate to a near neutral pH, or if you
wanted to avoid that initial burst of acidity, you could still use them
in your compost pile with good effect.

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/fo...ad.php?t=13169

Curious about pine needle Ph, I soaked some dry pine needles, put them
in the blender and checked the Ph. Around 6.5, which is the same as my
tap water. I run the mower over the dried needles and use them for
mulch. Pulling the mulch aside to top-dress with compost or whatever is
the only drawback. I do notice that the hostas mulched with pine needles
have less slug/snail damage. So it's a trade-off.

http://www.landscape-and-garden.com/...mendments.aspx

Using Pine Needles and Pine Bark

Most people and gardeners used to believe that pine needles and pine
bark will result in rendering garden soil acidic. And in general most
gardeners used to believe that any part of any coniferous tree will
subsequently be acidic.

However, in its raw state, all coniferous trees are not acidic. This
means that the pine needles that gardeners use to apply as mulch on top
of soil around a plant, or even in the planting hole will not alter the
pH of the garden soil. In fact it is only AFTER the pine needles have
been properly composted that it will result in changes in the pH of your
garden soil.

Nowadays it is not surprising that the seasoned gardeners have found
that pine needles and pine bark do not break down into compost easily.
It is quite a lengthy process if you want to incorporate pine and pine
products into the ingredients of your compost recipe. This is thus also
the reason why pine needles and pine bark makes for excellent, good,
long, lasting mulch that will keep the soil moist and cool the roots of
plants.

This means that pine needles and pine bark is not great additives to use
as soil amendment when you want to alter the pH of your garden soil. You
would serve your garden far better by making use of good compost which
generally has an acid pH. Thus if you want to change the pH of your
soil, you should rather plant with a good compost or acidic peat.

If you need to lower the alkaline level of your garden soil to make your
soil more acidic then you should plant with plenty of good compost, or
use an acidic soil/compost mixture which has the advantage of composted
bark incorporated into the mixture.

I have my blueberries planted next to a redwood stump. They don't seem
to be all that vigorous, but the soil should be fairly acidic.

From what I gather you want to push it far. Mine seem as happy or
happier than anything I have and they are in peat.

No, I
haven't checked the soil pH. Real men don't ask for directions, we wait
until we're out of gas ;O)

;O)

Jeff