I live in an area where pine straw is readily available, and it has been my mulch of choice for years. It breaks down quickly & I replenish it once (sometimes twice) annually.

This year, for the first time ever, some suppliers began offering LONG-lasting ** P L A S T I C ** pine straw!!! How this stuff will fare over time, or the eventual impact it will have on the environment and wildlife is anybody's guess, but we all know that it's not going to be eco-friendly.

If you're going to the expense and hassle of importing pine straw to your garden, please make sure it's the real stuff -- not some ersatz crapola that, in the long term, will do more harm than good.

What do most gardeners in you area use for mulch? The cost of pine straw here has soared into the stratosphere in recent years. If, in addition to basic costs, I also had to pay for shipping to get it to my garden, I think I'd find an alternative. A little bit of pine straw does NOT go a long way, believe me.

Any reason you don't use the oak leaves from the lots and lots of oak trees? They are my only winter protection and they're free, compliments of Mom Nature.
I just shred them with my garden tractor. I only lost 2 bushes out of 400 last winter using the oak leaves..

I have used the oak leaves. I AM using them also this year. I just would like to use the pine straw for protecting my first hydrangea (which would help the pH for it too) and for the area where I planted lots of hostas and LOV.
Call it "basic curiousity" about the stuff. I want to compare it to leaves vs pine chips vs cypress mulch vs etc. If I like it, great. If I don't see any difference I probably won't buy again. :)

I have many white pines, and at this point I've given up on the needles. They take forever to break down, so soil consistently mulched with them never gets any better. They also don't change the pH a bit.

Down south, pine straw is a main source of mulch. I stopped using it on most of my beds because it breaks down too fast and tracks into the house. I switched to pine bark chips. The only time I use pine straw is on a hill, because it is the only mulch that will not slide down a hill. Of course now I have my own source of pine needles on that hill because we planted our own virginia and loblolly pines. It's not the real long pine straw they sell, but it does the job.

If you are not walking on it a lot and it doesn't get full direct sun, the pine straw should last at least a year. I can't see paying shipping for it, but it's worth a try.

I also mulch up my fall leaves with a blower vac and have used that for mulch. I don't really do winter protection, but I have used mounds of shredded leaves and pine straw to protect roses and hydrangeas in late frosts.

I also tried that coconut mulch that is sold in blocks and has to be hydrated to expand. I like it except for the color.

I use my blower/vac also for shredding up the oak leaves every fall. Works like a charm!

Each fall we run over tons of leaves with the riding mower and shred them finely. This is by far the best mulch, it does wonders for the soil and the worms love it. A lot of work shredding all those leaves though.

Last year I was time-constrained and paid a friend $5 per leaf bag of pine needles (he lives in a neighborhood where they are abundant). There are a few white pines in the neighbor's yard of which I have used the needles as mulch in parts of the garden, but not enough needles. I paid a total of around $150 for all those pine needles, which was much cheaper than the equivalent yardage of delivered mulch. Plus more lightweight.

MG is right in that pine needles don't do much for the soil as they break down very slowly, at least in the north. Nor do they change the pH.

I think the ideal mulch would be a nice layer of shredded leaves first, then topped with pine mulch on top.

Dont use a a propane torch to get rid of weeds if you use pine needle mulch. Ask me how I know this.

Garyt

Garyt, I'll bite. How do you know this? There's a story here, I know!