• Home
  • Podcast
  • Online Classes
    • Workshops
    • Workshop Series
    • Classes
    • Membership
    • FAQ
  • Membership
    • The Circle
  • Local Programs
  • Shop
Have a Question? Contact Victoria
info@outdoor-classrooms.com
Login
No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Login with your site account

No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Lost your password?

          |   About   |   Blog   |   Cart   |   My Account |  
Outdoor Classrooms
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Online Classes
    • Workshops
    • Workshop Series
    • Classes
    • Membership
    • FAQ
  • Membership
    • The Circle
  • Local Programs
  • Shop

The Seedling BLOG

Preparing for Winter with Pine Needles

  • Posted by Victoria Hackett
  • Categories The Seedling BLOG
  • Date November 5, 2015
  • Comments 4 comments

Preparing for Winter with Pine Needles

An Experiment

 

Pine needles are a fabulous natural resource for the Outdoor Classroom. A couple of years ago I began using pine needles instead of pebble stones for my pathways. I ultimately got tired of buying and spreading little bags of stones that never filled the entire area. My garden naturally has an abundance of pine needles.  While gardening one day I simply started spreading the needles into all the paths. I love it. A brilliantly natural solution. Now question, can I prep my vegetable garden with pine needles instead of mulch?

I had always heard of gardeners using pine needles as mulch in their gardens; however always feared the needles would change the acidity of the soil. Last year I did the Newspaper Method in my vegetable garden to add nutrients. This year, after a little research, I learned that pine needles do not add a tremedous amount of acidity to the soil.

Here are a few articles I found on the topic:

  • Pine Needle Acidity: Myth or Reality?
  • Is Pine Straw Bad for a Garden?

We won’t know unless we try. Let the experiment begin….

  • Step One: Clean out vegetable garden.
  • Step Two: Cover the garden bed with pine needles
  • Step Three: Add signs and wait until Spring!

 

20151029_163337_resized20151105_142731_resized
Life under my Pine Tree is all cleaned up for now….

Goodnight Vegetable Garden, we will see the results in the Spring. Do you have a favorite method for preparing your garden beds for winter? Have you ever used pine needles as mulch? Share your gardening stories in the post below. 

20151105_142811_resized20151105_142816_resized

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

author avatar
Victoria Hackett

ABOUT VICTORIA:
My mission is for every child in every school to have access to an Outdoor Classroom. Therefore, I inspire educators to teach outdoors and lead an on-line virtual community of Natural Teachers all over the world to create their own Outdoor Classroom story.

Previous post

Garden of the Month: November 2015
November 5, 2015

Next post

Harvesting Rocks
November 6, 2015

You may also like

November 2022 Gratitude Project
1 November, 2022

Have you ever read about the benefits of a gratitude practice that uses a gratitude journal? Have you ever felt the effects of a random act of kindness? Has anyone ever told you the secret to happiness is all about …

10 Nature-Based Children’s Books inspired by The Gardens That Attract Wildlife
15 September, 2022

What if you could find inspiration for the design and curricula of your outdoor classroom from nature-based children’s books? What if you could be intentional about choosing books that connect both with your outdoor classroom design and activities? DESIGN: At …

How Can I bring More Wildlife to Our Outdoor Classroom?
9 August, 2022

How Can I Bring More Wildlife To Our Outdoor Classroom/Backyard Learning Garden? Are you struggling with how to attract birds, butterflies, and interesting bugs for children to explore in your outdoor classroom? Do you look at a blank cement top …

    4 Comments

  1. Shelley Grove
    December 3, 2015
    Log in to Reply

    I certainly have an abundance of pine needles to try this. I used straw this past season for mulch. I am using it to mulch my new garlic barrels for the winter. Straw is good for the soil as it breaks down. The worms like it and we want worms in our garden soil.

    • Victoria Hackett
      December 3, 2015
      Log in to Reply

      Let me know how it goes….I am trying this out in my veggie garden for the first time. I am excited to be using the pine needles in a different way. Tell me about your garlic barrels. 🙂

  2. kaylablake
    November 16, 2015
    Log in to Reply

    I haven’t heard of using pine needles before! I’ve heard of the newspaper method before however and wondered how well it worked. Any insight? Did you notice a difference?

    My major concern with the pine needles was how rain water would affect them and if it would cause them to spread and scatter away from the garden. I imagined the cleanup of so many pine needles would be tedious and increasingly frustrating after each storm. However, one of the articles you posted mentions that the needles lock together and won’t wash away. It would be interesting to have different garden beds with the same plants in them and use a different method in each one (pine needles, newspaper, mulch, nothing) and see which one works best. The children can come up with hypotheses about each one at the beginning of planting and at the end of the season we could discuss why their hypotheses were correct or incorrect.

    • Victoria Hackett
      November 16, 2015
      Log in to Reply

      You are reading my mind. I am doing exactly that and creating the Ultimate Outdoor Classroom Learning Lab. I have already started trying out the different methods. I am trying pine needles in my Veggie Garden. So far they are all in tact. It will be interesting in the Spring. I will use the newspaper method in another garden and so on. It is one thing to read articles and get advice…and another to actually try it and experiment! Stay tuned!

Leave A Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Categories

  • E-Course – STEAM Outdoors
  • E-Course Members
  • E-Course – Becoming a Natural Teacher
  • The Seedling BLOG

Copyright © Outdoor Classrooms - All Rights Reserved

                
  • FAQ
  • Terms
  • Policies
No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Login with your site account

No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Lost your password?