Leaves are falling, so I will be tilling them into the garden plot soon.
My Big Question is about pine needles.
I have a large pine tree out back that drops a prodigious amount of needles each year.
They are nice and brown and cover the ground to the point of killing the grass.
I usually rake them up and dispose of them.
Would it be okay to add them to the garden along with the pecan leaves or do they need to be left out longer?
I had also thought about leaving them in a pile until next year and using them between rows in the garden to keep down grass and weed growth.
Hoping to find a used bagger for the mower so I can use grass clippings as well.
Any information and ideas are gratefully appreciated.
IIRC, pine needles can make the ph of your soil acidic, which is good for blueberries, and azaleas etc. Depending on how much, and what you are planting, it should be ok.
Good Idea to use the pine needles as a much, but as they breakdown and enrichen the soil, they will slightly acidify the soil.
The use of a small amount of lime would sweeten the soil, thus counteracting the soil acidification.
I would reccomend a soil test in the spring to see if lime is necessary, because soils react differently (ie: clay, sandy loam, loam, gravelly, glacial debris, etc.)
Save those pine needles and use them to suppress weeds next spring. I mulch 1000 tomato plants with pine needles every year. The results are amazing, check out my farms Facebook page and see for yourself:
https://www.facebook.com/Flint-City-Farms-1533223683572101/?fref=ts