Using Your Christmas Tree in the Garden

I always have a fresh-cut tree for Christmas and just hate the thought of tossing it out after the holidays. Do you have any ideas how I can recycle my tree?

Give your Christmas tree a second life in the garden. Anchor it in a snow bank or on a fence or trellis.

Hang homemade or purchased birdseed feeders, orange pieces and other food for the birds. The tree provides needed shelter and the food will help bring additional visitors into your landscape.

Or use it as a windbreak to protect boxwood, rhododendrons and other broadleaf evergreens from drying winter winds and winter sun.

You can also cut the branches off the tree and use them as winter mulch over perennials and bulbs. Place several branches over border-line hardy perennials, late plantings or bulbs that are subject to early sprouting. Winter mulch keeps the soil cold, preventing early sprouting and frost heaving during our winter thaws.

At the end of the season, contact your local municipality. Many will chip the remnants of your tree along with other gardeners’ landscape trimmings for use as mulch in the landscape.

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