Pine Tree Shavings

We had our pine trees in the front yard and we cut them down and are hauling them off to a shaving company. (they use the shavings for chicken houses) I am wondering though, is it ok to use pine shavings for mulch? I can get them REALLY cheap. THey also have sawdust but I have heard bad things about pine sawdust.

Any suggestions? (I normally use pine bark or pine straw, so not worried about the acidy of the soil. I always go back and correct if it gets altered too much.)

They're fine to use for mulch so long as you keep on top of the acidity thing. No different from using the bark or needles/straw except they're lighter, so you also have to figure in the wind perhaps blowing it around.

Pines don't add a significant amount of acid to the soil. As a mulch it will have no noticable effect. Integrated into the soil it may have a slightly measurable, temporary effect but not one that should affect your plants.Changing your soils ph is difficult to do,even when you want to. If it was as easy as adding pine residue, we would all have blue hydrangeas.

An interesting experiment might be to test the ph in the soil where the trees stood, where pine needles may have fallen for decades, and compare it with the soil in your garden. It's likely that they will be close.

Wayne