Straw mulch is great for gardens. It locks in moisture, smothers weeds, and feeds plants. But it might also cause one of the ...

Starting a vegetable garden can be a rewarding prospect for any homeowner. In addition to having fresh veggies on the ready, digging in the dirt has big health benefits. Though yanking out weeds might ...

A variety of pink, white, and red azaleas in full bloom - Sanne Dost/Shutterstock Who doesn't love a healthy and thriving azalea in full bloom? When covered with a sea of colorful flowers, azaleas are ...

Right under our collective noses - and probably in your very own yard - is a great gardening tool that we have typically shunned. Pine straw. Raked up often to be disposed of, this all-natural, ...

Pine straw is an organic mulch made from fallen pine needles, explains Mary Jane Duford, founder of the beginner gardening blog Home for the Harvest. Like any garden mulch, pine needles create a ...

Summer has definitely arrived. With temperatures reaching the high 90s and 100s every day, water is quickly lost from soils and plants. Evapotranspiration is the agricultural term for the total amount ...

Over the years, I’ve had many questions from readers about using pine straw as a mulch in the vegetable garden. Is it a good idea? Let’s cover some of the basics. Mulching is a long-established ...

Wood mulch and wood chips will mat down to make a firm but spongy surface for your garden paths and around playsets. Pine straw is too slippery to walk on, so skip it when mulching these high-traffic ...

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - I have bragged about the abundance of oaks and, consequently oak leaves, that I’ll be able to use between the rows in my vegetable garden. A friend asked if pine straw could ...

A cold snap hits, the garden beds go quiet, and most people assume the soil is ready for hibernation. But winter is actually the perfect time to supercharge your soil so it wakes up in spring richer, ...

In the bamboo forests of southern China, mulching the ground with straw during winter is a common management practice. Farmers use materials such as rice straw and bamboo branches to insulate the soil ...

RALEIGH Three years ago, 32 townhomes in Pine Knolls Townes were destroyed by a raging fire. That ignited the local pine straw debate. That year, Chapel Hill imposed the first local rules on pine ...