Wherever there are sandy soils in the south, there are pines.
Look at the African Methodist and Baptist churches in the south and southeast with the name Piney Grove, dating back to the 1860s and perhaps earlier. Virginia, North Carolina (at New Bern, people came to the Piney grove Church, AME, "on foot, by oxen or mule car"), South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama (Piney Grove precinct), Georgia, Texas- Piney Grove (Pine Grove), Texas was settled about the time of the Civil War, and on and on.

Piney Grove thus means something "homey" to many southerners, both black and white. Would lovers have met in the church grounds and cemeteries? Certainly.