I suggest you get a few blueberry plants. They will love the pine needle mulch (or pecan shell mulch). You can't beat blueberries!

Semiorganic,

Well, it wasn't really rude to ask questions and do the intro later. We do enjoy the introductory info, though, as it helps us understand people's location, situation, etc.

I do not think pine needles are too acidic AT ALL in our part of the state, because we tend to have neutral to alkaline soil and water. They might be too acidic for some people in some locations that have such drastically acidic soil that they have to amend the the soil to make it less acidic. Here, though, they are just wonderful as mulch, especially as they break down so very slowly.

I don't know what the pH of your soil and water are in Carter County, but here in Love County just a hop, skip and a jump south of you, our soil tends to be in the 7 to 8 range, and my amended garden soil is around 6.5 to 6.8. In this kind of soil, therefore, pine needles' acidity is probably a plus.

If you have more pine needles than you can use (and that is possible since they break down very, very slowly) and no one local on GardenWeb wants to come get them, you probably could give them away via the Ardmore Freecycle website.

Dawn

If you do incorporate the pine needles into your soil or use as a mulch on beds, it would be a good idea to have a nice snug pair of leather gloves to wear when doing any hands on work in that area. I've had the luck of getting pierced more than once with still sharp and rigid needles.

randy

I beg pine needles from my neighbor and love putting them in my flower beds. They smell so great. Somewhere I read that they are a good mulch for around the house because they don't attract termites like wood chips do. I have no idea where I read that.

I have tons and tons and tons of pine needles, and use them to mulch my hydrangeas and azaleas. As Dawn said, they really are not that acidic. They make for great mulch on just about anything.

If someone wants to come get a sack or so of them, please feel free to drop by. Send me an e-mail.

Susan

When I can get it, I use "pine straw" just about everywhere.
It is especially great in the strawberry beds - great as a mulch and the pine straw adds a wonderful flavour to the strawberries like that of wild strawberries.

As was said, it is great around acid loving plants like gardenias and rhododendrons and azaleas, and gives your prized Hydrangeas that heavenly blue colour, but I use them around my tomatoes too. The best tomatoes, strawberries, green beans and etc. that I ever grew was the year I got bags and bags of pine straw and pecan leaves from a curbside rubbish pile to be picked up the following day by the trash truck. I asked the lady of the house if I could have them and she grinned at me like I was an idiot and said, "Sure! Take 'em!"

Pine straw is great to put in your veggie garden or flower garden paths. Certain perennials and annuals like the acidity of them as mulch.

In the South you can buy it in bales at nurseries to use in your gardens for mulch.

You can build a compost pile made entirely of pine needles to use for all your acid loving plants, including house plants, Jasmine, ivy, ferns and other such plants.

~ sweetannie4u