Question
Kenneth,
I own a home in central Virginia and the home is surrounded by many pine trees. When I mow, I have always mulched, but have been told that I need to remove the dead pine needles first because the needles are to acidic for the soil. I have been raking up the needles, then mow/mulch. Question: Is it okay to mulch the needles and grass. Will these acidic mulched pine needles eventually kill the grass? Thanks for your advice.

Answer
It is a common misunderstanding that pine needles would damage grass because of the pH value.

Pine needles do not prevent grasses from growing and they actually provide a matural mulch. However, very large quantities can smoother small grass plants. Normal shredding is not a problem, but I would no go dumping inches of pine needles on new young grass plants.

Under mature pines grass seldom grow adequately due to competition for particularily sun and moisture. The tree shades the sun and the large roots compete for water. in addition the soil is often very compacted by the root activity. This, and not the pine needles, are responsible for grass death.

It may still not be possible to grow grass right around the pine trees for the reasons mentioned above. Normally a 5-8 feet wide "mulch ring" can be created around trees and grass then grown between trees but not right next to them/under them.

Pine needles can be difficult to get rid of in the lawn, however.

Mulch mowing is unfortunately not an effective way to dispose of them. Because of the size and shape of the needles, the mower blades seldom contact them and since the needles are resistant to microbial breakdown - even when chopped into smaller pieces - they can stay in the lawn for months.

The very same reason why "mulch mowing" the needles may not work, the pine needles are excellent mulch material for flower beds as they stay on the bed for a long time (does not disappear too quickly).

Therefore, if you have flower beds, I would still rake most of it and put it on the flower beds as natural mulch as opposed to mulching most of them into the grass.