After the holidays are over, your natural cedar, pine or Fraser fir Christmas tree has other uses in the garden.
Photo by onurdongel/iStock
Cut evergreens such as cedars, pines and Fraser firs are, by far, the most popular trees used by South Carolinians for Christmas decorating, but unlike their plastic imitations, at the end of the year, they can’t be packed and stored for future Yuletide cheer. Kicking your tree to the curb is an option, but why not make more than your money’s worth and reuse it after all the baubles and bangles have been taken off?
One way to recycle a cut Christmas tree is to simply stand it up outside as a windbreak for birds where the evergreen branches can provide some protection from c-c-c-cold winter winds. Hanging suet, cranberry strings or birdseed bells in the branches will also turn it into a popular fly-in diner.
If a bushy bird feeder doesn’t seem right for your backyard, grab an ax and strip the branches from the tree. Cut six-inch mini logs from the trunk and then split them into skinny kindling sticks. When burned, the resin-packed pieces of wood release their wonderful aroma, but don’t get carried away and use too many at one time. These Christmas tree slivers can really flare up and also create plenty of snap, crackle and pop, so only a few are needed to crank up a fire.
The limbs can be used to start fires as well, but definitely not in home fireplaces because they burn quite fast. In small amounts, however, they could help flame up that new outdoor fire pit Santa brought you for Christmas.
Christmas tree limbs can be used as a winter mulch to help protect tender herbaceous perennials against particularly nasty, extended cold spells. Also, how about adding a little more fuel to organically heat up your compost pile? The needles will decompose faster if you finely chop them up before stirring them into the compost pile.
Finally, you can extend the enjoyable fragrance of your Christmas tree deep into the winter by making potpourri or sachets from snipped branch tips and needles. A more modern approach to this old-time tradition is to simply save a tin of cut-up needles, toss a small handful on the floor and suck them up with your vacuum so they will release their memorable seasonal scent into the air as you clean the rest of your house.
December in the Garden
• A nonchemical way to reduce problems with bad bugs next year is to turn the soil over in any vacated garden beds to expose overwintering insects to the killing cold. Do this deed late in December and once again at the end of January.
• While slinging dirt to dispatch sleeping bugs, save a little bit for a soil test this month. Some nutrients and conditioners take time to become chemically incorporated into the soil, so the sooner you act, the better next year’s garden will perform. Clemson University can help with soil test kits, so check them out online at: hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/soil-testing. For more on soil testing and how to take a good soil sample, see “Digging up answers with soil samples.”
Tip of the Month
Now is a good time to take a walk through the garden and look for areas where permanent features can be added to enhance visual interest year-round. Vases, statuary, fences, walls, a greenhouse, arbors, sundials and birdbaths are all good, conventional choices. However, if you like to recycle and enjoy perpetuating a playful state of unexpected whimsy in the garden, opt for the unusual, such as a wildly painted mailbox for storing hand tools, an old claw-foot bathtub for water-loving marginal plants, a crusty wood stove converted into a planter or a bench fashioned from an old log.
L.A. Jackson is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.