Hi there,

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 believe they are called Castlewellan Gold.

Here's a link to a photo.
http://www.ballarat.net/avalon/cypress.htm

I thought of lopping off the top of the trees- mulching them including the
leaves finely - and then using them as mulch for my rose garden. I'm
allergic to the pine leaves so I'm getting tree pruner to do the job.

One old grizzled tree pruner however warned me that using fresh conifer pine
mulch was a very bad idea and will kill the roses or any other plant. He
said the best thing to do is to throw them away. or if I wanted to use them,
to put them in compost bins and wait for 12 months.

Is using conifer mulch for the garden a bad idea? I didn't realize it was
toxic.

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

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 believe they are called Castlewellan Gold.

Here's a link to a photo.
http://www.ballarat.net/avalon/cypress.htm

I thought of lopping off the top of the trees- mulching them including the
leaves finely - and then using them as mulch for my rose garden. I'm
allergic to the pine leaves so I'm getting tree pruner to do the job.

One old grizzled tree pruner however warned me that using fresh conifer
pine mulch was a very bad idea and will kill the roses or any other plant.
He said the best thing to do is to throw them away. or if I wanted to use
them, to put them in compost bins and wait for 12 months.

Is using conifer mulch for the garden a bad idea? I didn't realize it was
toxic.

pines notoriously prevent anything else from growing near them, so yeah.
however, i'm personally not sure if it's just the acidity of the dropped
leaves, or if only the living trees are able to have this effect. (or
perhaps both).

having said that, acid-lovers such as strawberries (in particular) & other
berries such as blueberries apparently benefit from pine leaf mulch. i've
just mulched my strawberries with old pine needles but that was just the
other day, so nothing to report yet ;-)

if i were you, i'd have the pruner mulch all the trimmings into a pile,
leave it for a while, & then use it to mulch something acid-loving about the
garden. if you don't already have a strawberry patch, crowns will be
available for sale in the winter & you can put them in & mulch them with
your by-then-somewhat-aged conifer mulchings!

not that i am bugging you to have a strawberry patch, but they're a
good-looking, low-maintenance, productive ground-cover, will grow seemingly
anywhere, and soil acidity is never a problem. ;-)

failing that, i should think it would be perfectly all right to distribute
the (aged) mulch thinly all about the garden after you've left it for some
time, just avoiding anything you know really likes alkaline conditions, just
in case.

kylie

"Luke" blah@blah wrote in message
...
I think it's more a case where the pine mulch will make the soil more
acidic, whereas a rose prefers a fairly neutral soil around PH 6.5.
Probably composting it is the better idea as I hate seeing mulch go to
waste.

Thanks for that. I think the old guy just wanted to discourage me and take
the mulch away. His quote didn't involve leaving the mulch behind (because
he claimed it was useless).

Another tree cutter suggested putting the mulch onto one section of the
garden which was hidden and let it sit for 4 weeks or so. I've got him to do
the job as he was more helpful and friendly.

I'll probably keep the bulk of the mulch in that section of the garden for
3 - 12 months or so and put a bit of blood and bone and seaweed mix to hurry
up the rotting process.

Thanks all for the advice.

In article ,
"YMC" wrote:

Hi there,

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 believe they are called Castlewellan Gold.

Here's a link to a photo.
http://www.ballarat.net/avalon/cypress.htm

Apparently these are a form of Leyland Cypress, responsible for an outbreak of
'hedge rage' across the UK.

I thought of lopping off the top of the trees- mulching them including the
leaves finely - and then using them as mulch for my rose garden. I'm
allergic to the pine leaves so I'm getting tree pruner to do the job.

You are going to be spending a lot of time and money on the annual pruning of
these 'little' darlings. Perhaps you should have them removed instead?

One old grizzled tree pruner however warned me that using fresh conifer pine
mulch was a very bad idea and will kill the roses or any other plant. He
said the best thing to do is to throw them away. or if I wanted to use them,
to put them in compost bins and wait for 12 months.

Is using conifer mulch for the garden a bad idea? I didn't realize it was
toxic.

Not exactly toxic. The issue is that conifers have waxy coatings on their
leaves, which means that they tend to be water-repellent and to break down
very slowly. So a heavy layer of "needles" might cause your plants to die of
thirst before anything else. The breakdown process also uses up nitrogen,
which your garden plants would prefer to use for growing leaves. I'd compost
them, myself, or if I were trying to kill something I'd put the whole lot
there.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/

"Chookie" wrote in message
news:ehrebeniuk-D41C4B.21334728032008@news...
In article ,
"YMC" wrote:

Hi there,

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 believe they are called Castlewellan Gold.

Here's a link to a photo.
http://www.ballarat.net/avalon/cypress.htm

Apparently these are a form of Leyland Cypress, responsible for an
outbreak of
'hedge rage' across the UK.

I thought of lopping off the top of the trees- mulching them including
the
leaves finely - and then using them as mulch for my rose garden. I'm
allergic to the pine leaves so I'm getting tree pruner to do the job.

You are going to be spending a lot of time and money on the annual pruning
of
these 'little' darlings. Perhaps you should have them removed instead?

One old grizzled tree pruner however warned me that using fresh conifer
pine
mulch was a very bad idea and will kill the roses or any other plant. He
said the best thing to do is to throw them away. or if I wanted to use
them,
to put them in compost bins and wait for 12 months.

Is using conifer mulch for the garden a bad idea? I didn't realize it was
toxic.

Not exactly toxic. The issue is that conifers have waxy coatings on their
leaves, which means that they tend to be water-repellent and to break down
very slowly. So a heavy layer of "needles" might cause your plants to die
of
thirst before anything else. The breakdown process also uses up nitrogen,
which your garden plants would prefer to use for growing leaves. I'd
compost
them, myself, or if I were trying to kill something I'd put the whole lot
there.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/

I have a layer of pine needles throughout most of my garden. Because they
are on the surface they shade the soil. No plants in my garden have died as
a result of acidity in fact most are healthy and without fertiliser too. If
you look under the needles the soil is moist and a nice layer of humus is
forming whereas exposed sections in the garden are dry 30cm's down. The weed
count is way down also where exposed soil has weeds everywhere.

If worried about acidity add some dolomite. Don't underrate pine needles
they look better in the garden than woodchips. In the USA they dye
pineneedles all sorts of colours so people can use them in the garden.

I also like the pine needles as I can go to one of the forests here fill up
6 x 100 litre tree bags and that will last me more than 9 months before a
top up is needed. It only costs me fuel and my time, usually I do it when I
am coming back from somewhere.

Most of my trips involve stop offs to gather something in season at
abandoned sites. Figs, lemons and olives have been my most recent.

Pine chips should be ok if on the surface. Try not to dig them into the soil
as they will rob whatever nitrogen is there. I prefer not to use them as
they tend to be blown around while breaking down.

Cheers

Richard

"Chookie" wrote in message
news:ehrebeniuk-D41C4B.21334728032008@news...
You are going to be spending a lot of time and money on the annual pruning
of
these 'little' darlings. Perhaps you should have them removed instead?

Hi,

I don't do it annually. Just every 3 years or so. Its going to cost me about
$500 to do 10+ trees and I get about 4m of mulch. So its not too bad. Plus
they provide a good wind breaker and privacy protector.

"Loosecanon" wrote in message
"Chookie" wrote in message

The issue is that conifers have waxy coatings on their
leaves, which means that they tend to be water-repellent and to break
down
very slowly. So a heavy layer of "needles" might cause your plants to
die of
thirst before anything else. The breakdown process also uses up
nitrogen,
which your garden plants would prefer to use for growing leaves. I'd
compost
them, myself, or if I were trying to kill something I'd put the whole lot
there.

I have a layer of pine needles throughout most of my garden. Because they
are on the surface they shade the soil. No plants in my garden have died
as a result of acidity in fact most are healthy and without fertiliser
too.

You are discussing two different things. Chookie didn't mention that plants
died of acidity but from thirst from a heavy layer of needles. I agree with
her. Pine needles are water repellant in large quantities and are a pain in
the bum when they do that.

Your idea of using pine mulch is a different matter. I too use pine needles
if I can't get anything else and find then OK but not as good as other
things. and you identified the best things about them. They are free and
do look quite good.

If
you look under the needles the soil is moist and a nice layer of humus is
forming whereas exposed sections in the garden are dry 30cm's down. The
weed count is way down also where exposed soil has weeds everywhere.

If worried about acidity add some dolomite. Don't underrate pine needles
they look better in the garden than woodchips. In the USA they dye
pineneedles all sorts of colours so people can use them in the garden.

I also like the pine needles as I can go to one of the forests here fill
up 6 x 100 litre tree bags and that will last me more than 9 months before
a top up is needed. It only costs me fuel and my time, usually I do it
when I am coming back from somewhere.

Most of my trips involve stop offs to gather something in season at
abandoned sites. Figs, lemons and olives have been my most recent.

Pine chips should be ok if on the surface. Try not to dig them into the
soil as they will rob whatever nitrogen is there. I prefer not to use them
as they tend to be blown around while breaking down.

Cheers

Richard

I think it's more a case where the pine mulch will make the soil more
acidic, whereas a rose prefers a fairly neutral soil around PH 6.5. Probably
composting it is the better idea as I hate seeing mulch go to waste.