The best magazine
This year, you’ve thought more and more about what it means to grow and go organic in your household. With an ever-increasing awareness of the chemicals and toxins around us in everyday life, you went with a natural – maybe even organic – Christmas tree! Picking it out made new memories, and decorating it brought back old ones. But with the gifts opened, the lights fading, and the sugar plums gone, what do you do with the tree now?
An artificial Christmas tree gets boxed up every year to sit in your attic and slowly break down, waiting to come out again next winter. But you can see your tree dropping more needles by the minute, and you don’t know what to do with it. There are actually a few options, so fear not! Your Charlie Brown tree can be resourcefully disposed of, giving back to the Earth from which it came.
Using Your Old Christmas Tree to Amend the Soil
Once Christmas comes and goes, your tree has seen better days. It’s drying, the needles are falling off, and it’s generally making a giant mess. But those fallen needles and dried up branches still have life to give. The needles and small branches can go right onto garden beds as a cover. They will insulate small plants and the soil from the harsh winter weather. If you aren’t covering anything in particular, spread small branches around the garden. As the needles fall off, they will become part of the soil, helping it to retain moisture.
If you have access to a wood chipper, you can turn the whole tree into mulch to cover garden beds and walkways.
But remember that all of these options are soil amendments, and the composition of your soil will change. Pine is acidic, so adding lime with it will help to counter the changes if you do not want more acidic ground. With that said, blueberries love acid, so your new fall blueberry bushes make a great place for Christmas tree trimmings.
Old Christmas Trees as a Wildlife Habitat
If your garden isn’t up for mulch right now, your backyard ecosystem might still want the tree. The tightly spaced branches of a Christmas tree make a fun playground for squirrels and other critters. Laying the tree at a perimeter of the yard will keep them out of your space but close enough that you can enjoy each other.
For extra fun, hang bird feeders from the tree, or make some of the small branches themselves into feeders with some peanut butter and bird seed. This can become a yearly tradition that you’re your family and the birds look forward to.
Check with local wildlife resources, too, to see if they could use the trees in rivers or lakes. Recycled Christmas trees make good erosion barriers and fish habitats. Depending on the efforts in your area, someone might even come pick the tree up for you.
Do Christmas Trees Make Good Firewood?
The verdict is out on whether Christmas trees are acceptable to chop into firewood. You will need to look up your specific type of tree and see what the consensus is. But no matter what you decide about the type, the time you wait before burning it is the key. New wood is still full of sap and green inner bark. If you burn it right away, you’ll have strong odors and dangerous burn quality. The oils in it can actually coat the fireplace, and a chimney fire could erupt.
After cutting a tree into firewood, wait at least a full year before burning it. To be safest, use your Christmas tree wood in a wood burning stove rather than an open fireplace, or simply burn it outside at a bonfire.
How to Dispose of a Christmas Tree in Town
Even when you don’t have the space to make a feeder or store wood for a year, you still have options. Waste Management, the trash and recycling pick up company, might have a program in your area. Give them or your trash utility a call to see what they do with old trees. The city might also have a collection program for their parks or a natural refuge.
Source: ...