October may be hunting season to some, white perch season to others, Halloween season for many; but it's pine straw season for us. We only have two acres , but we have a bunch of pine trees and this is the time of year when they start dropping needles.
The first year we lived here we decided that we should wait until all the pine straw had fallen before we did the BIG RAKE. Made perfect sense. Well by the time March rolled around the ground was knee deep in straw. We raked the back half of the yard by hand and hired someone to finish the front. It was a colossal job!!
Now we know that we must do a mini rake in October. This gives us enough straw to put in all the beds around the house. Then we do another rake in January. With this one we fill the island beds out in the yard. And finally we do a spring rake that adds new straw to the vegetable garden and and fills our pine straw "stockpile" for the year.
We no longer rake by hand. James bought a raker that attaches to the mower in keeping with his mantra, "right tools for the job". It has made straw season much more pleasant!
According to Master Gardener, you do not need to remove old pine straw before adding new. As the old pine straw breaks down, it acidifies the soil and most landscape plants like a slightly acidic soil. This year I am sprinkling Preen on the old straw to keep down weeds, before adding the new layer of straw. I'll let you know how well it works.
Happy Straw Season,
Shelli
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