Well, sounds like most of you are going to jump all over me. But I crunched the numbers and went for the synthetic (polyester) pine straw. I put it over weed cloth in my flowerbeds in 2004 and it still looks great. It and the weedcloth have cut my weeding time by about 98%. The artificial straw contains no molds, diseases nor insects. My beds are on high ground, and the straw stays put. There is one area that gets a lot of leaves. For that, I take the straw out on the lawn on a lovely day, sit on my rolling garden wagon and shake the leaves out, bagging the cleaned straw as I go. Then I blow any remaining debris off the weed cloth and replace the straw. I understand that they now have a glue that one sprays over newly installed texstraw so that you can use a blower to get the leaves off without disturbing the straw. That might work if your planting were all perennials and you weren't planning on new plants for a while. When I want to add a plant, I simply remove the straw from that area, cut an x in the weed cloth, plant, and replace the straw around the new plant. No problems. My spring bulbs come right up as usual.

Pine needles do not significantly acidify soil. It's one of those old gardening myths. I have done soil tests beneath pine trees that have been mulching themselves for decades and the pH was identical to nearby earth in sod. Soft woods don't extract as much calcium from the soil as hardwoods and so you will be adding less calcium but it will not be a problem. If you need a higher pH you should add lime anyway. I have seen demonstration vegetable gardens at very well known botanical gardens using pine needles for mulch.

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

Pine straw is not sold in bags. It is typically baled like a small, gently compressed hay bale. This allows for the easy shipping and storage of lots and lots of pine straw. Loblolly or Longleaf pine straw is a wonderful mulch, but there are some draw backs. The stuff I've seen in the big box stores often looks old and dusty to me. Pine straw doesn't last all that long, and the bales should be fresh when purchased. As it ages a bit, pine straw becomes highly flammable, too. It's use has been stopped in many communities along roadsides, rest areas, municipal buildings, etc. for that reason. Much of the economical value of using pine straw is lost as you realize that it had to be applied at least twice a year, if not more. It becomes gray and brittle in the summer sun and not attractive (or effective) as it breaks down. Then, of course, in your area the cost of shipping would be the primary problem (as has been mentioned). Oh, the chiggers and ticks. Has anyone mentioned that, yet. ;-)