It's so sad to see discarded Christmas trees waiting for the garbage truck. Nothing lasts forever, but there's still some use in that cut tree. One of my favorite uses is to prop it up near the house and use it to hang a bird feeder. The birds like to feed somewhere where there's cover and I don't have to walk so far in the snow to fill the feeder.
Our Trees & Shrubs Guide, Nessa Richins, suggests sharing your tree with the fish in your pond. Nessa has several other ideas in her list of 6 Ways to Recycle Your Christmas Tree. Do you have any suggestions to add? How have you recycled your cut Christmas tree?
Photo: Matt Cardy / Getty Images News
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It’s quite a bit early to recycle the christmas tree, but here is another suggestion: Building an eggbeater
On twelveth night we burn the branches in the hearth, the trunk is cut up for fires thoughout the year and we always save the last log for next years yule fire.
For many years we used our Christmas tree for firewood but the more we learned about going green we decided we would stop getting real Christmas trees and try an artificial one. We have been using it now for about 10 years and we think we will just keep going that way.
I lived with a girl back in the early 70s and her father had a tree farm. He would keep the same Christmas tree year after year. They kept it wrapped in burlap and replanted it every spring.
Heiner, the egg beater was clever. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone doing that with their tree. Now you’ve got me thinking what else I could make from the tree.
And I like the idea of continuing the celebration with the logs as firewood. But my hat goes off to anyone willing to dig and replant a tree year after year after year. I sure hope it’s a dwarf.
Mulching cold sensitive plants with christmas tree branches is a fair idea. Some people can’t stand their garden not looking absolutely meticulous every day of the year; not sure that would work for them. Others, with houses surrounded by tall evergreens have so much downfallen branches from winter storms that the addition of christmas tree branches wouldn’t be so welcome.
Some people I know that put up live cut trees also de-limb them after the holiday, and lay the branches out on a long compost pile. With the addition of leaves and other garden debris layered with them throughout the year, they break down into great mulch very nicely.
Some people really like having ceiling scraper height trees. People that are happy with one somewhat smaller might be able to do just fine with lifting a live tree from its spot in the ground each year and bringing it in the house. Not such a big deal with keeping a plant small…that’s what bonsai is all about; just keep the roots trimmed close and the root ball contained rather than free to run wild in the open ground.
Anything to give people an option other than carelessly discarding a christmas tree. It’s a sad feeling for me to see a poor tree just dumped in a ditch or a dumpster after its done its bit to make a holiday nice for someone.
Have not had a Christmas tree for 15-20 years.
Our city is very good about waste management – all green waste is free to bring to the landfill (including Christmas trees) and is converted into compost or wood chips and sold back to the public at a very low cost. Works for me!
Jennie, I agree it’s very convenient having the landfill compost for us. I would just caution everyone to make sure it’s well composted, since not everyone dumping their lawn and garden clippings is organic. Especially the perfect lawn fanatics. You might not want to use it on your vegetables.