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Posts Tagged ‘gadening’

Besides the fact Pine Straw mulch is a sustainable, renewable resource, it’s so simple and lightweight to work with pine needle and looks very attractive. Young seedlings can grow through pine needle, water can filter down through it, the dirt can breathe and even so pine straw still holds in moisture. It lasts longer than other similar materials and pine needle won’t float off with the first drenching rain.

In fall mulching with pine straw has an significant purpose since temperatures in the late fall to wintertime months can change radically. The ground heaves as it freezes and thaws, forcing the root systems of many fragile plants up from the dirt and exposing them to the elements. Virtually all plants are much healthier when they have a bed of pine needle mulch spread over their roots.

When mulching with pine straw you should wait until the ground is frosty or just about icy before you add the pine needle. Any earlier application will encourage mold and mildew to form on the surface. Generally, a 2- to 3-inch bed of pine needle mulch placed over the root zone of a plant will provide a noticeable difference in the plant’s health. Established plants will show less stress and better growth. Just be sure to pull pine straw mulch an inch or two out from the stems of shrubs or from the trunks of trees. If pine needle mulch is heaped up against trunks or stems, it can trap too much moisture and further decay on the bark.

Many people make the error of using less reliable fall mulch such as hay in their garden. Hay is not a good option to pine straw since hay often carries seeds that will sooner or later sprout and cause weed problems in your garden bed in the spring. Pine straw comes from several different species of pine trees that drop their pine needles or ?straw? by nature through the year. Once the pine needle drops to the ground, it is cleansed and baled, without ever taking down a single tree. Since it is produced naturally, pine straw sometimes is referred to as the “guilt-free” mulch. Each species’ of pine tree will have its own unique characteristics, such as pine needle length, wax content and pine needle flexibility. The Loblolly species of pine straw, for instance, has a pine needle length ranging from about six to nine inches, making it simple to employ and shape. Also, the needle size is optimum for allowing the soil to breathe well while allowing excellent water infiltration.

Ideally, garden mulch for the winter is added in the fall to protect against sudden and extreme temperature dips before plants have had a chance to fully harden. A few inches of pine straw mulch can provide a cushion of as much as Ten degrees above ambient air temperatures which is just enough to keep roots growing. And certainly, a top layering of pine needle mulch offers decorative appeal, making the yard to look cared for at a time when the lawn can look a little underwhelming.

Too many people in the North believe that lawn making is mainly a springtime activity and not many know that late summer is a very good time to come to the aid of an established lawn or build a new one. The weather is ideal for grass seed germination starting early in August in the far North and a week later for each hundred miles southward.

Mid-August is a good time to sow grass seed in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The days are growing shorter, nights are cool, temperatures are lower, dew and showers provide moisture, and weed seeds do not germinate. This last is a very important factor in favor of late summer and early fall grass seeding. The sprouting seed and young seedlings do not have to compete with weeds, a distinct advantage over grass started in spring.

Seed sown in August and early September will produce a good stand of grass that will not be in exceptional danger of winter injury. Seed sown after mid-September (in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area) will be susceptible. Each day’s delay in seeding after that date, increases the risk of injury.

Applying Fertilizer

The periods mentioned for seeding also apply to fertilizing. In August and early September fertilizing is especially beneficial because the weather again becomes favorable for good growth of grass after a mid-summer slump. An ample supply of nutrients should be available so that the best growth can be made. But fertilizing should be done not later than mid-September so that the new growth will have time to mature and harden before winter arrives. Late fertilizing makes the grass lush and soft and subject to winter injury.

August begins the fall planting season, a good time to plant evergreens and garden perennials. Weather conditions are as good as they are in spring and plants are in excellent shape for transplanting especially if you have just finished planting coleus plants from seeds. This is the best time to grow coleus plants, peonies, irises, bleeding heart, baby’s-breath, lily-of-the-valley, and mertensia. These plants have made their growth for the season and have matured. They can be moved without interfering either with their growth or their flowering.

August also is the time to plant or transplant yearling biennials such as hollyhocks, sweet rocket, foxglove and canterbury bells. These have made their growth for this year; they will flower next year.