Uses of Pine Straw

Pine straw offers many benefits around the lawn and garden, including the fact that it is organic. It is also great for water conservation, since it helps to prevent runoff and evaporation. Pine straw provides many advantages compared to peat moss, pine park, dried leaves and other types of mulch, including the fact that pine straw can promote the growth of healthy plants while retarding the growth of troublesome weeds.

Industrial Settings

Pine straw is a popular choice for landscaping in industrial and commercial settings, and many professional landscapers find it effective and easy to use. By using pine straw around flower beds, flagpoles and other settings, professional landscapers can save money while creating an inviting and beautiful area. The water-conserving tendencies of pine straw make it a particularly good choice--the reduced need for watering can greatly reduce the cost of ongoing maintenance.

Around the Home

Pine straw can be a wonderful mulch for flower beds and gardens around the home. One of the chief advantages of pine straw over other mulches is that pine straw will not attract termites. Pine straw also reduces water runoff, a big advantage in those parts of the country that are prone to droughts.

Highway Landscaping

Pine straw is also widely used by road crews. The same properties that make pine straw such a great mulch around the home in flower beds also make it a great choice for landscapes along highways.

Pine straw can be a particularly great choice for highway landscaping in places that are difficult to get to or difficult to work in. That is because, compared to pine bark, peat moss and other popular mulches, pine straw has lower maintenance needs.

For the Birds

Pine straw also makes a wonderful choice for lining bird houses and attracting feathered friends to your backyard. Birds seem to love using pine straw to build their nests, so many gardeners will put down a little extra in their flower beds to share with their favorite winged visitors.

Hill and Bank Landscaping

Because pine straw is so good at preventing erosion, it is a great choice for landscaping banks, hills and other areas where erosion is a problem.

Large Landscapes

Compared to other types of mulch, pine straw is extremely light and easy to work with. This makes it a good choice for large yards and extensive landscaping projects.

Starting New Plants

Pine straw is also a good choice for starting young plants in a home garden. Pine straw does not interfere with plants as they grow. In addition, it helps to retard the growth of common weeds that could compete with those delicate young plants and steal the nutrients they need to grow strong.

References

• Benefits of using pine straw