How to Recycle A Christmas Tree

Don’t feel guilty about buying a freshly cut Christmas tree every year! Nothing makes a house more festive, and unlike a fake tree, you can actually reuse a cut tree in your garden after the holiday season! Here are some ideas for recycling your tree.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Handsaw
• Axe

1. After Christmas, remove all of the lights, ornaments, and tinsel from the tree and take it out of its stand.
2. Take the tree outdoors, and with a handsaw remove all of the branches. Create an instant wildlife habitat by making a pile with some of the branches in an inconspicuous corner of your yard (i.e., behind a tree or large shrub). Within a matter of weeks your brush pile will provide shelter for birds and other wildlife, including beneficial insects.
3. The evergreen branches of Christmas trees also make an attractive and long lasting mulch in ornamental beds. Place them around the base of shrubs, especially those planted in fall, to prevent frost heaving, a problem that occurs when the repeated freezing and thawing of soil pushes plants out of the ground.
4. Use the trunk in place of a pole. Attract birds to your yard by mounting a bird feeder or bird house to the “pole.” This rustic bird heaven blends in especially well in wooded areas.
5. You can also turn your Christmas tree log into a mushroom farm. Several edible mushrooms grow well on coniferous softwood logs and a mushroom log is a great conversation piece in the garden. All you need to do is inoculate your log with mushroom spores (see the Resource section for kits)!
6. Of course you can also use your Christmas tree log in more traditional ways. Get some exercise and chop the log into firewood. If you have a chipper shredder, roughly chip the log and use the chips as mulch in ornamental gardens. You can also use the log to edge a raised bed and depending on the size of the bed, you may want to ask your neighbors if you can recycle their Christmas trees in your garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Always wear gloves and eye protection when using a handsaw.