I moved into this house recently and am not sure how to approach the yard maintenance. The property consists mostly of ponderosas. To be honest the way it looks doesn’t bother me. It sort of seems like the pine needles will break down over time and it seems like it keeps lots of ground cover from growing.
The last picture is a patch I did rake down and it was a ton of work for such a small area and to be honest it looks kind of ugly bare.
The only legitimate reason I would just bite the bullet is from a fire hazard standpoint, but I guess the question is how serious pine needles can be.
I did get a quote to get it all cleaned up. It wasn’t cheap, but I would go ahead with this is something I should take seriously or would benefit from. Just looking for some input. Thanks
Edit: This is south of Denver Colorado if that changes anything.
by Altruistic-Bake-8931
3 Comments
Leave the pineneedles. Looks better. Better for ecosystem. I dont know where you live but if you arent having campfires nearby or throwing your cigs on the ground, I think you should be fine. Most wildfires are actually human started.
I would leave it, take what you need for mulch if you plant anything.
Look up defensible space around your home. There are 3 zones you want to create around your home for fire safety. The inner most circles will have bare ground, those pine needles are perfect fuel for a ground fire. If you look up how a forest fire travels there is the ground floor fire that uses this debris and can creep up into the canopy if there are low and dead branches. If you want to keep your home through the next several fire seasons you will take all of this very seriously. I grew up in Northern California and we lost my community 2x in my childhood and I’ve seen a lot of places burn down and some which have survived through thick and thin. It’s not 100%, but those that take defensible space around their home are the ones which survive fire after fire.