[CFrance]

Originally Posted by kittygilchrist

this is the first place I've lived in a lifetime of Florida where pine straw was valued as a longterm mulch. Happily, my dog likes to pee in it.
Kitty

Originally Posted by gomoho

Well now made I need to develop a "pine mulch pee station". Hmmmmm

Our dog too! Happily, he will pee in the stones as well, although not his favorite.

gomoho, I've had my years of organic gardening, and really enjoyed it. Then we moved to a condo, where I discovered container gardening. Now I'm here and would like to free up as much time as possible for exercise and pickleball and socializing. So we took the easy way out o landscaping. I enjoy viewing the landscaping of those who do their own and sometimes wax nostalgic, but I know I would not keep that up due to time and so much bending, so I continue with the container gardening and rock mulch in the yard landscaping.

But I still love the look of bark mulch and a real crisp natural edging.

[justjim]

If you want as little maintenance as possible use rock with the weed mat. Mulch if you intend to do more "gardening" but it will require considerable maintenance by you or hired help. It took us a couple of homes in TV and a couple of landscapes to make "rock converts" of us.

[Single Track]

Originally Posted by Single Track

Need some advice from all you gardeners. I'm looking for the pros and cons of either removing the pine straw before putting down mulch or putting the mulch on top of the pine straw.

The landscaper plans on removing, laying a weed mat down and then the mulch but he has indicated that either way could work.

What do you think? Any experience with doing either?

Thanks to everyone for your opinions. Most of you thought it would work best by putting the mulch on top of the pine straw without the weed mat and that's what I went with. The landscaper used red shredded mulch and it looks so nice. It took 6 yards of mulch and I'm thrilled with the finished product. By the way I'm still using the small private landscaper because whenever I call him, he calls me right back and he does such nice work. He is Joe McCormic at 352 266-5684.