Is pine straw better than bark mulch?

On a slope, or in a long bed you want looking the same the whole way across, straw is the easier answer. The needles knit together and rain runs over the top of them. Bark sits as loose pieces and travels with the water. On a path people walk daily, gravel beats both.

How deep should pine straw be?

Build it to about two to four inches once it has settled. Loose straw packs down, so roughly four to five inches raked out on the day comes to around two inches later.

Should the old straw come out first?

No. Leave it where it is and put the new layer on top. The old layer is still breaking down into the bed, which is half of what it is there for.

When is the best time of year to lay it?

Pines drop needles all year in Georgia, and the heaviest fall is in autumn, winter and early spring. That is when most beds get laid or freshened.

How often does a bed need doing again?

Pine straw composts in place while it sits there, so it grays and loses its look within about a year. Longleaf sits at the longer end of that. Plenty of people go again inside the same year, purely for the color.

Can straw go right up against a tree trunk?

Keep it back off the bark. Run the ring out wide and flat instead of heaping it up in the middle, and leave the trunk itself clear.

How many bales does a ring around one tree take?

A ring about 6 ft across works out at 1 bale. Most yards have several trees, so rings add up quicker than people expect, and the smallest order is $150 however they add up.

Does pine straw go under hedges?

Yes, and that is where it does its quietest work. It runs in under the skirt of the shrubs, covers the bare stems and the dirt, and carries on out to the line you want against the grass.

A white house with a covered porch, with pine straw beds curving along both sides of the front lawn

Ways to use pine straw

Ideas for pine straw around your house.

Straw is cheap, it is local, and it does more for the front of a house than anything else you can buy by the load. Here is where to put it, what shape to give it, how deep it wants to be, and what each idea costs.

Where straw beats bark, and where it does not

Straw is not the right answer for every square foot of a yard. It is the right answer for most of them.

It earns its place

Ground that slopes

The needles hook into each other and hold. Water runs over the mat instead of picking it up and carrying it to the bottom.
Under hedges and shrubs

Straw tucks in under the low branches, where a shovel of rock never quite goes, and it covers the bare stems at the base.
Big beds in one sweep

One material, one color, one texture across a whole front. That is what makes a yard look finished rather than patched.
Beds under pines

Needles fall into the bed all year. In a straw bed they disappear. On rock they sit on top and have to be blown off.

Something else is better

A path you walk daily

Feet push straw around and wear it thin in the middle. Gravel or stepping stones take that traffic better.
Under a downspout

Water off a roof scours a hole in anything loose. A patch of rock at the splash point holds where straw will not.
One color all year

Straw changes as it ages, and that is part of it. If you want the same exact shade every month, straw is the wrong material.

A deep bed of fresh pine straw along white siding, with a bed of red bark mulch across the grass behind it

The bed line does most of the work

People think they are looking at the straw. They are looking at the line where the straw stops and the grass starts.

Same house, same straw, same money. The line is the whole difference.

Fewer lines, longer ones

One sweeping curve along the front of a house reads better than five small beds each doing their own thing.

Curve out, never in

Push the line out into the lawn around a tree or a corner. Beds that pinch inward look like something went wrong.

Mow the line, not around it

If a mower can follow the edge in one pass, the edge stays crisp. If it cannot, the line will creep by summer.

A wider bed is also cheaper to keep. Pushing the line out a step swallows the awkward grass nobody can mow properly, and straw is the cheapest thing to put on that ground.

The corner of a house where the pine straw bed curves out into the lawn in one long line

A long pine straw bed running the length of a brick building, with a separate island bed out in the lawn

Rings around trees

A ring does two jobs. It keeps a mower and a string trimmer away from the bark, which is what kills young trees in a front yard. And it gives the eye something to land on out in the middle of the grass.

Make it wider than feels necessary. A small ring around a big tree looks like a collar. Take it out toward the ends of the branches and it starts to look deliberate.

The one thing to get right is the middle. Straw heaped against the trunk holds damp on the bark and gives insects a covered way in. Flat and wide, with the trunk standing clear.

A ring about 6 ft across is 1 bale delivered and spread. Three trees out front is still a short job.

A gap you could fit two fingers into is enough. The straw should stop before it touches bark.

A ring of pine straw spread around the base of a palm standing in a lawn

A small pine straw island around a lamp post, with a larger bed running along the walk behind it

Beds on a slope

This is where straw stops being a matter of taste. Bark chips are separate pieces sitting loose on the dirt, and a hard rain floats them to the bottom of the hill and out onto the driveway.

Pine needles are long, and they lie across each other. Raked out, they lock into a mat that behaves like one sheet rather than a thousand loose pieces. Water runs over the top and keeps going.

Needle length is the reason, and it is why the straw on the trailer is longleaf. Longer needles interlock tighter, and they break down slower than the other straw sold in Georgia.

How the three kinds of straw differ

Crossed needles behave like one sheet. That is the whole trick, and nothing sold in a bag does it.

A pine straw bed under shrubs and tall pines, running along the edge of a driveway

Under hedges and along the foundation

The bed at the base of a house is the one most people give up on. It is shaded, the dirt is poor, and the bottom of every shrub is bare sticks.

Straw goes in under the skirt of the shrubs, where a wheelbarrow of rock never reaches. It covers the bare stems and the dirt, and the row reads as one solid green shape sitting on a clean band of copper.

Take the straw out past the hedge by a step, not right up to it. A narrow strip makes the shrubs look crowded. A wider band gives the row room to stand in.

Cut the hedge first, then lay the straw. The other way round puts every clipping into the new bed, and picking them out of fresh straw takes longer than the trimming did.

Hedge trimming, on the same trip

A row of clipped round shrubs along a brick wall with a band of pine straw curving between them and the lawn

A clipped hedge against a house with a narrow band of pine straw between the hedge and a concrete walk

Walks, drives and the strip along the grass

A concrete walk with grass running straight up to it looks like nobody finished. A band of straw down both sides gives the walk a border and makes a front door feel like somewhere you are meant to go.

Along a driveway the strip does a second job. The edge of a drive is where grass struggles and where a mower wheel keeps dropping off. Put a band of straw there and the problem goes away.

Keep the straw a little below the level of the concrete. Raked flat to the edge instead of heaped, it stays in the bed rather than spilling across the walk every time the wind gets up.

A band of straw is also the cheapest way to join two beds. Run it between them and two islands become one shape, which nearly always looks better.

A wide concrete walk up to a church entrance with pine straw beds on both sides

The edge of a pine straw bed meeting a concrete driveway, with the straw raked level to the line

Copper, then gray

Fresh straw is copper, and it does not stay that way. Knowing the run of it is what tells you when to book.

Straw laid today is at its brightest for the first few weeks. It softens through the season and ends up gray, and by then it has lost most of its depth as well, because it has been quietly composting into the bed the whole time.

So time it around what you care about. If the yard has to look its best for something, lay the straw close to the date, not months ahead. If you only want the beds covered and the weeds held down, any time of year works.

Most beds want a fresh topping about once a year, once the old straw has grayed. Plenty of people go twice, and the second one is purely for how it looks.

What delivery and spreading covers

How deep to lay it

Aim for about two to four inches once it has settled. Loose straw packs down hard, so roughly four to five inches raked out on the day comes to around two inches by the time it has been rained on.

Thinner than that and weeds find the light through it. Much thicker and it mats so tight that rain sits on top instead of going down to the roots.

Do not strip the old straw out first. It is still breaking down into the bed, and that is half of what it is doing there. The new layer goes straight on top, which is also why a bed that already has straw in it takes fewer bales than a bare one.

Fresh copper pine straw under clipped shrubs along a brick wall, raked to a clean line against the grass

What each idea comes to in bales

One round bale covers about 80 square feet once it is spread. Pace the bed out, multiply your steps, divide, and round up.

4 ft by 20 ft

One bed along the front of the house

1 bale

6 ft across

A ring around one tree

1 bale

3 ft by 60 ft

The whole front of an average house

3 bales

about 500 sq ft

Front beds and both sides

7 bales

Bales are $15 each, delivered and spread. The smallest spread job is 10 bales, so a yard that works out under that is $150. Rather spread it yourself? Delivered only is $7.50 a bale, and the smallest delivered only order is 20 bales, $150. Inside a 30 minute drive of Glennville, the trip costs nothing on top.

Work out your own number Towns the truck runs to

A brick house with a porch, its clipped shrubs standing in a bed of pine straw

Things people ask

Is pine straw better than bark mulch?: On a slope, or in a long bed you want looking the same the whole way across, straw is the easier answer. The needles knit together and rain runs over the top of them. Bark sits as loose pieces and travels with the water. On a path people walk daily, gravel beats both.
How deep should pine straw be?: Build it to about two to four inches once it has settled. Loose straw packs down, so roughly four to five inches raked out on the day comes to around two inches later.
Should the old straw come out first?: No. Leave it where it is and put the new layer on top. The old layer is still breaking down into the bed, which is half of what it is there for.
When is the best time of year to lay it?: Pines drop needles all year in Georgia, and the heaviest fall is in autumn, winter and early spring. That is when most beds get laid or freshened.
How often does a bed need doing again?: Pine straw composts in place while it sits there, so it grays and loses its look within about a year. Longleaf sits at the longer end of that. Plenty of people go again inside the same year, purely for the color.
Can straw go right up against a tree trunk?: Keep it back off the bark. Run the ring out wide and flat instead of heaping it up in the middle, and leave the trunk itself clear.
How many bales does a ring around one tree take?: A ring about 6 ft across works out at 1 bale. Most yards have several trees, so rings add up quicker than people expect, and the smallest order is $150 however they add up.
Does pine straw go under hedges?: Yes, and that is where it does its quietest work. It runs in under the skirt of the shrubs, covers the bare stems and the dirt, and carries on out to the line you want against the grass.

A row of clipped round shrubs along the front of a house, standing in a wide bed of pine straw

Say which beds you want done, and the price is settled on the call.

Call (912) 256-6051

Monday to Friday, not weekends, and about 2 days of notice is best. You can also send the details and get a call back.