I think it's a great thing that councils here in the UK offer some sort of shredding facility for Christmas trees - there's no excuse really for just dumping it. However, we recycle ours at home, there's lots of possibilities. I make sure that every shred of decoration is off it, then drag it outdoors to the back garden. The branches are cut off, then some are shredded to use as a mulch. The pine needles are qutie acid, so provide an excellent mulch for acid loving plants - ornamental ones, but mine tend to go on the strawberries - very good for them. Sometimes I shred, other times, I just lay the smaller branches around them and leave them to rot down. I have a lovely environmentally friendly old shredder, worked by a handle with human power - no noise, no fumes, no fossil fuels for that, and it was at least second hand when I was given it. The rest of the branches are chopped up or shredded and put on the compost heap. This year, some will be added to my new blueberry plants too, to give them a boost. The trunk is left to dry out for a while, then sawn and stacked in the wood shed for burning in the stove or woodburner next winter. This year, I might purloin a bit of it for my wood carving that I hope to get done, thus giving me another option.
We have a very lovely tree this year - a very fresh dark green one; it wasn't particularly cheap, but it was local, cut from the field behind the farm shop. So, these further uses are a good way of adding extra value for money!
3 comments:
Yes, our tree is out in the garden awaiting recycling too. It was a particularly lovely tree this year and also bought locally from our farm shop.
Thanks for the tip about strawberries! ... :0)
we recycle ours in much the same way - the branches become kindling, the trunk sawn into logs.
There was a great countyfile programme last week , the xmas special i think ,about recycling trees.
They are used for reinforcing sea defences and as brush cover near some reservoirs very interesting
Shaz
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