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 ....

I don't know how peat moss came to have a reputation as something you'd want in your garden. Not only is it a water-sucking dryness factory, it also has so much tanin (tannin?) in it that the Vikings used it to preserve fish on their long voyages, & a number of strikingly preserved human bodies have been recovered from Irish bogs (google bog bodies). Some of the bodies, 800 or so years old, are so well-preserved that you can see the pores in the skin. Preservatives *stop* organic action; doesn't sound like anything I would want in my garden or soil. I live in what must be the alkaline soil capitol of the world, north central Texas, & it's a lost cause to try to change the Ph of the soil on any kind of long-lasting basis, because... the water is alkaline. Every time we water, we're raising the Ph. I once read an article on how to grow azaleas in the Dallas area in a Highland Park Garden Club magazine from the 1940's. The technique involved digging a 6' deep flower bed & putting layers of straw, manure, soil, then a little sulphur, etc. & the last sentence said that this was for a 20-year bed; at the end of 20 years, you have to dig it all out & start over! My experience with pine needles in my pla-doh-like alkaline clay soil is that the needles do decompose, & they improve the tilth of the soil. I generally ignore the ph, since there's not anything I can do about it anyway, short of moving to Tyler. Some plants are "ph adaptable"; even if they're advertised as acid or alkaline loving plants, they can adjust. If your plants need a more acidic soil, maybe you can just apply some rose or azalea food. I'd use the autumn leaves/pine needles mixture as a mulch & let nature take its course. They'll eventually all rot together. but if you want to use your composter, go ahead & toss them all in there; Not every material decomposes at the same rate, but, again, they'll eventually all rot together. When you harvest your finished compost, if there are identifiable pine needles remaining in the tumbler, just toss them back in, just as you would any other material that you can still identify. There used to be a poster on this forum who composted a thick city phone book! but she had to pitch it back in the compost pile a few times. Have fun! Here is a link that might be useful: Peat Moss as a Food Preservative

lgteacher, "pine straw" is a common mulch in the Southeastern US, and is pine needles. I learned that reading other forums which have Southeasterners posting. It's not a common California term, because mulch/soil amendment tends to be a local product (due to transportation cost) and we don't have a lot of pine lumber mills here. Starfinder you may have to collect it yourself, or if you want to acidify soil here you have to use peat moss, azalea/camellia mix, or soil sulpher, and a bark product. For my blueberries I mulch with peat moss as a first layer and another type of mulch over that, to keep the peat from drying out. Gardening is all local...

I don't think we have the same type of pine needles as are grown down south. It seems to me that most of the pine needles around here are short. There are some that are longer (white pines?) but not the same as down south. I haven't heard of "pine straw" in this area. If so, I would like to find some also. Good luck!