no... you have two solutions for MATURE pines ... one.. get rid of them .. and solve the needle issue ... two ... remove the rock.. AND LEAVE THE NEEDLES UNDER THE TREES.. where they have naturally accumulated for millions of years ... let me ask you ... why are you forcing a preconceived notion of landscape rock under a pine tree ... pines are conifers .... ALL conifers shed their needles.. generally within 1 to 3 years ... increased by a good drought some years .. the thought that the situation .. on a 40 foot tree.. is going to get better.. or lessened in the future is problematic ... landscape fabric is a snakeoil salesman's joke on the gardening world.. a useless waste of money better spent ... as most weed seed is airborne .. so minutes after putting it down.. you have already been defeated ... roll this around.. if you left the pine needles to build naturally ... they would become a mulch.. a highly acidic mulch ... and reduce your weed problem exponentially ... you are actually defeating the trees attempt to suffocate weed production.. by removing the needles ... bob.. WAG here ... you are trapped in suburbia ... on a small lot.. with sidewalks and neighbors way to close.. and you are getting frustrated with a pine tree.. that in all reality.. is now becoming the FOREST MONSTER it is meant to be.. if there is any budget.. think long and hard about removal .. you are not going to change its inherent properties.. of growing and shedding needles ... in ITS lifetime ... otherwise.. its all good exercise ... good luck ken ps: you are stuck in a box .. i am trying make you look outside the box you have created .... Here is a link that might be useful: check out some of these pix.. you are fighting mother nature.. she ALWAYS wins ....

We shred leaves by mowing them and they get collected by the bagger attachment. Doesn't look like an option for you. Unshredded leaves didn't break down very quickly for me but I'm in NH and I didn't mix them with anything. It sounds like pine needles mixed with leaves would be good. You don't want a layer to compact. I suggest you watch Craigslist which is where I find free manure ads. Best find was a guy who added kitchen scraps, wood ashes and barn bedding to the manure pile. It was nicely composted so I used this for my top layer in the spring and planted directly in it. Last year I made too thick a pile of unshredded leaves topped with about 6-8" of fresh from the barn steer manure (no bedding material). The steer manure solidifed/crusted so the bed didn't decompose over winter like my first one did. I ended up digging large holes, filling with better material and using this bed for winter squash. A second, similar bed, was used for tomatoes and summer squash. Worked fine. Keep in mind that lasagna beds attract worms which will help in the decomposing process. I have also added the perfed edges from computer paper on a dot matrix printer at work. I would be added shredded newspaper if I could find the office shredder that got lost in a move. Just don't use glossy paper such as ad inserts. I've been very happy with my lasagna beds. Two are in second year of production. Two are first year after being built last fall. Never till. We've had a long, cold wet summer but I didn't have any mud or drainage problems whereas some neighbors lost their gardens. Six feet is a little wide. You don't want to do a lot of walking on your garden because it compacts the soil. I'm going to widen the second year beds and split them in half with a narrow path for weeding in the middle.

One thing I did find out last year (my first year composting) is if you just pack leaves into you pile and don't shread them or turn them enough it will create pockets of leaves that are unaffected and smashed togeather. It's not really a problem as I just broke them up when I saw them and threw them back in. Just and observation. But I would do as others are saying. Use leaves. They are free and usually really easy to get. I have neighbors dumping leave in my yard for me to use since I don't have any large trees yet. I try and get as many as I can for mulch and compost. Pine needles are also fine. Most of them have a small film of wax on them so they might take a little longer to break down. But they do break down non the less. And go ahead and and anything else that grows in your garden. It will all decompose and compost into nice stuff to use later. Leaves glorious leaves!

Pine neddles/ straw makes an excellent/ wonderful mulch. I have used it for years originally only during the hot dry summer for weed supression and moisture retention. I now use it year round it works well on the winter weeds and grasses. My old method was in the spring rake off the pinestraw from my garden beds add compost, till then put old pinestraw back on and add new straw to vegtable beds. In my opinion the old pinestraw makes the best mulch for veggies because it has partially broken down and can be placed easier and closer to the plant stems with less potential to smother the plants it also lies flatter whch is good. I also somtimes comeback and add an additional layer after the intial one has been rained on and flattens somewhat and also the plants have grown and the risk of them being smothered/covered by the pinestraw mulch is less.In the end the thicker the better. This year I am experimenting with no till by raking off the old pinestraw adding a thick layerof composted cow manure ( I found a free source) then digging my planting holes with a post hole digger sprinkle a small amount of slow release fertilizer in the bottom of the the planting holes. Then planting and reapplying the old pinestraw and adding new. If it were not for the pinestraw/ mulch this would be a disater the free cow manure even though it has been composted to a soil like state has so many weed seeds that my garden would be over run with weeds in a matter of weeks.