What's the best way to remove massive amounts of pine needles from a 1/4 acre yard?

Question

I rent 1/4 acre that is surrounded with 12-15 full-sized pine trees. The needles have turned half the yard into a dirt farm and the wind scatters them everywhere conceivable. I have a large fan rake but I have to beat at the ground rapidly just to get the motion going and it can take over two hours to do the entire lawn. Anyone know of alternative methods? I don't want to be up to my neck in them but raking pine needles is really exhausting compared to other kinds of work I do. The only search results I find are about how beneficial they are as mulch. Sheezz.

Answer 1

Get that old rake out and start raking. I know this is an endless job, I have the same problem with a neighbors pine tree. It gets all over the yard, especially when the wind blows from that direction, but all I have to do is to rake them into a pile and bag them up.

Answer 2

Raking Pine Needles

Answer 3

Yep, the acids in the needles are really hard on grass. it's almost impossible to grow grass under pine trees. I like to rake it up under the pine trees. That makes mowing around the pine trees unnecessary. As to the rest of the stuff?...A lawnmower with a collection bag attachment is the best way to deal with it if you don't want to rake.

Answer 4

You've gotten some really good advice regarding whether or not to remove the dropped pine needles. I would err on the side of caution though and only remove an inch this year. The black sandy soil is an excellent indicator that your tree is healthy. Spiders are gardeners friends. One additional piece of information though, red mulch of ANY kind is dyed. This includes red cedar mulch. It's color is enhanced artificially and it smells awful.

Answer 5

I use a yard vacuum. Then I dump the needles out around the pine trees. Live in the south, so we are burdened with pine needles and cones.

I gather the large cones and sell them on Blujay.com for craft items.

Answer 6

I run a tree service, when we do a pine tree and the owner wants the needles cleaned up, we use a 10 tine pitch fork to pick them up [there is still raking that needs done] and haul them off

Answer 7

The mower with the bag- my suggestion exactly. You can get high lift blades for most mowers that help with the needles. Check with a lawn equipment dealer for a high lift blade for yours. Good Luck.

Answer 8

put out on ad free pine straw mulch , that is what you have