A wide variety of plants thrive with pine straw mulch, including azaleas, camellias, hostas, ferns, hydrangea, magnolias, coleus, rhododendrons, snapdragons, cineraria, bleeding heart, geranium, lily of the valley, rose of sharon, rhodies, hellebores, astilbe, strawberries, blueberries, and choke cherry. Because this is not an exhaustive list, please consult your local professional for answers to questions about specific plants not named here.

Pine straw should be spread 2 – 3 inches deep on the ground surface. You will receive the pine straw from The Pine Straw Store® packed in boxes or on pallets, the pine straw should be taken from the boxes in handfuls and shaken over desired area so that it is distributed in a loose, fluffy manner. While this is a bit time consuming, it will achieve two very important objectives, providing a very attractive ground cover and yielding the correct square footage from each box. Applying the straw in a clumpy fashion will result in a much less attractive look and will cover a smaller area.

Yes. Placing pine straw around the base of trees or other plants is very effective in protecting their root systems from the cold. If you are trying to protect a small tree, make a pine straw bed about three inches deep and two feet in diameter around its base. If you live in a very cold climate. the depth of the straw bed should be about six inches.

Yes. At a depth of about three inches, pine straw ground cover can be an effective method of weed control. The deeper the pine straw is applied, the better the weed control. One way that pine straw helps to control weeds is by blocking the light so that it does not get to the infant weeds and without light, weeds have a hard time surviving.

If the straw is being used to protect plants and add to the soil, it should be applied annually. If it is being used for decorative purposes, it should be applied once a year to keep mulch looking at its absolute best. The mulch can last several years.

The short answer is “No”. Pine Straw debris levels vary greatly from company to company. Any Pine Straw supplier that sells to very large “Big Box” stores is going to have a very poor quality product. They set their harvest procedures to focus on volume and not quality. We at PineStraw.com focus on product quality and a positive customer experience. There are 3 major types of Pine Straw and one B-Grade product:

1. Premium Pine Straw – ( 14 Inch Pine Needle Mulch – a.k.a. – Longleaf Pine Straw, Long Needle Pine Straw, Pinus Palustris ) – The thickest needle with the heaviest wax coating resulting in extreme durability. Very few companies actually carry Longleaf Pine Straw due to the fact that it’s scarce. We carry this product in box and pallet form.

2. Standard Pine Straw® – ( 9 Inch Pine Needle Mulch – a.k.a. – Slash Pine Straw, Slash Pine, Pinus Elliottii ) – The most popular type sold on the market and has a combination of durability, cleanliness, and affordability. We carry this type Pine Straw under the name brand Standard Pine Straw®. If you are having trouble deciding what type of Pine Straw to purchase, this type of Pine Straw Mulch is a good place to start.

3. B-Grade Pine Straw – ( 9 Inch Pine Needle Mulch – a.k.a. – Slash Pine Straw, Slash Pine, Pinus Elliottii ) – This pine needle is the same as our Standard Pine Straw®. The main difference being, that our B Grade Pine Straw will contain a higher amount of debris, as it has not been through our triple clean process. This type of pine straw is also very popular as it is durable, much cleaner than short needle straw, and the most affordable pine straw we carry.

4. Loblolly Pine Straw – ( 6 Inch Pine Needle – a.k.a. – Short Needle Pine Straw, Pinus Taeda ) – The worst of the three major types of pine needles, we do not carry the Loblolly Pine Straw due to the poor quality of the product and the fact that it does not last very long. If you are looking at purchasing Pine Straw and the price is too good to be true, there is a reason. A lot of the copy cat web sites sell Loblolly pine straw because its the only type they can get due to their geographical location in the U.S. If a company or web site does not list the type of Pine Straw they are selling, there is a good chance that its because it is Loblolly. Companies will substitute cheap Loblolly Pine Straw and try to pass it off as Slash Pine Straw, or make a list of reason why its “almost” as good as the other types of Pine Straw. Companies that do this will often try to get the customer to focus on the weight of the product to say you are getting more pine straw and avoid talking about the lifespan and quality of Loblolly Pine Straw. A dirty product loaded with sand, sticks, excessive moisture, and other types of debris will weigh more than a fresh, clean batch of Pine Straw.

Yes, if you order your pine straw and decide that you want to use it at a later date, just keep the boxes in a dry, cool place and the pine straw should be fine.

Yes, pine straw will stay in place very well with high winds. The longer the pine needle, the better the pine needle will stay in place. If you have a place that has very high winds, you need to go with either the Longleaf pine needle or the Slash pine needle. Pine straw also works well on hills and will not wash away when the rain comes. Pine straw will work very well around the swimming pool. The long needles will stay in place with the winds and foot traffic.

Any type of pine straw can be walked on. Dogs and other animals can walk on pine straw without any problems. We recommend the 9″ Standard Slash Pine Straw if you are putting the pine straw in a high traffic area with pets.

Termites do not like pine straw. You can put pine straw in your yard without the fear of termites that comes with most hard woods.

“Shotgun” fungus (Sphaerobolus stellatus) is becoming more common in the US. Pine Straw is great at helping to prevent the spread of shotgun fungus. Because hardwood mulch is the food source of the fungus, completely removing the hardwood mulch is the first step to getting rid of the fungus. When the infected hard wood mulch is removed completely, the black spots should stop appearing on the side of the house. The second step is to apply pine straw in a very thick manner to the desired area. We recommend that you use either our Standard Pine Straw® (9″ needle) or our Premium Pine Straw (14″ needle) and leave a 3 inch gap between the pine straw and any permanent structure. Remove old pine straw and apply pine straw mulch on a yearly basis.

Yes, if you place pine bark on the ground, you can then place pine straw on top of the pine bark. Some of our customers do this because they love the look of the pine straw over the top of the pine bark. You can also place the pine straw at a depth of 2 inches because the bark helps control weeds along with the pine straw. You will get well over 200 square feet per large box if you decide to use this method.

Each large box of pine straw will cover 200 square feet at 2 inches deep. If you place the straw at a dept of 1.5 inches, you will get over 250 square feet from each large box. If you place the pine straw on the ground at 3 or 4 inches deep, you will not get 200 square feet out of each large box. The thicker the straw, the less square footage each box will cover. You can not determine the square feet covered by weight alone, this is a common misconception that beginners make. The reason for this is that weight is mainly determined by moisture levels. Plus, it is common knowledge that any Pine Straw that contains an excessive amount of dirt, sticks, and moisture will weigh more than a clean, dry box of Pine Straw. The type of Pine Straw also helps determine the weight. We have taken the hastle out of the process, all of our products clearly state the square footage covered.