Before you brought your Christmas tree home, it lived 8–12 years in the field, depending on its size and species. Someone put a lot of time and effort into planting, watering, fertilizing and pruning that tree. And let’s face it – when that tree was cut, it was killed. It will be prettily decorated for a few weeks in your living room, but is that all there is?
Why not put it to one or more good uses after its performance as a decoration is finished? Here are some ideas.
• Lean the tree against your bird feeder to provide shelter for the birds that come to eat there.
• Set it outside in a snow bank and stick homemade or purchased bird treats in the branches. This can be as simple as peanut butter smeared onto pine cones, or as complicated as small baked cookies.
• Locate the tree away from the bird feeder and stock it with dried corn cobs, sunflower seeds, peanuts or pieces of fresh or dried fruit to lure squirrels away from the bird seed. Stale Christmas cookies or that fruit cake that no one will eat can be broken into small pieces and put on either the bird tree or the squirrel tree. If you have a hard time getting the treats to stay in the branches, use a small bit of peanut butter to stick them on.
• The branches can be cut off the tree and the boughs placed around and over the base of perennial plants to protect the soil around them from freezing and thawing throughout the winter. Alternate freezing and thawing damages roots and can kill plants. Constant shade from the boughs will keep the ground frozen.
• Use the branches to stake tall indoor plants in containers, or save them to stake peas or other tall or vining plants in next year’s garden.
• Cut the trunk into two-inch disks and set them on their sides into the soil to edge a flowerbed.
• Cut the trunk into various lengths that can be set in a grouping as flowerpot risers for a nice display. If you’re going to use them indoors or on your deck, place something under them to protect the surface from sap.
• The trunk can be cut into 3/8” to ½” slabs, sanded, and given a coat of polyurethane for use as coasters or trivets.
• Chip the entire tree and use the chips as a nice looking mulch that will also suppress weeds, retain moisture and keep soil temperature more consistent.
• Have a bonfire! Be careful though – the pitch in pine, spruce and fir is extremely flammable and if the tree has dried out some it will burn even faster. Never burn pine or spruce wood indoors as it will cause creosote to build up in the chimney.
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