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Re-use your Christmas Tree

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Do you still have your Christmas tree?

If you do, you might want to think about reusing it rather than putting it out on the curb for the garbage collectors to pick up. The Star Tribune, St. Paul Minneapolis has a great list of ideas for those who want to find ways to reuse their Christmas tree.

WINTER MULCH
Evergreen branches can be like a parka for your plants. “The branches help soil maintain an even temperature, and they will stay in place better than loose leaves or straw,” said Nancy Rose, a horticulturist with the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Just cut branches off the tree and pile them on plants that need protection.

FOR THE BIRDS
Your discarded Christmas tree can provide habitat and a feeding station. If you have a sheltered spot in your yard, simply lay the tree on its side or add it to a brush pile, then scatter birdseed around it, said Duluth ornithologist Laura Erickson. Or “plant” your old tree in a bucket filled with sand, then decorate with pine cones slathered with peanut butter.

TREE FOR ALL SEASONS
Get more mileage by repurposing your tree for other holidays. Tamara Belle-Isle said the artificial tree of her childhood stayed up through Easter, first decked with Christmas ornaments, then Valentines, then Easter decorations. George and Michelle Gold save their natural Christmas tree for Lent. They take it outside, cut off the branches, saw off a section of the top and make it into a cross.

BACK TO NATURE
You can compost your tree or, if you have access to a woodchipper, you can turn it into mulch. Evergreen chips can be used just as you’d use any wood chips, plus they smell good.

BURN IT — OR NOT?
Mary Granger’s Christmas tree comes down Jan. 2, is chopped into firewood and burned the following year while the new tree is trimmed. Old Christmas tree limbs can make good fire starters because they crackle and are aromatic. But burn with caution: Christmas trees are highly flammable, and they contain a lot of resin, which produces more creosote than hardwoods.

SPRUCING UP YOUR POTS
If you never got around to adding seasonal interest, here’s an easy, no-cost alternative to the ubiquitous spruce tips. Just cut off your Christmas tree branches and stick them in your pots. (Keep the Christmas-tree trunk, save it until spring and use it to stake tomato plants.)

TREE-MENDOUS TRELLIS?
OK, it’s not fancy but it’s functional. When propped upright in the garden, your old Christmas tree can provide a structure for morning glories, purple hyacinths or other climbing vines. A tree trellis lasts only a season, but you can’t beat the price.

Does anyone else have any other ideas of how a Christmas tree might be reused? List them in the comments area, lets build this list.






Paperwhites love a little drink of Gin

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Now here’s a few tips that you might not have heard of or thought of before:

If your forced paperwhite Narcissus, are flopping over there is a remedy – an odd one at that. Researchers at Cornell discovered an old home remedy for top heavy paperwhites that will help keep them in place – give them a good stiff drink. That’s right, put a little bit of gin in the water and watch their heavy heads lift. You can use an assortment of alcohols for these boozy plants – vodka, rum, tequila and whisky all seem to work equally well.

Another tip to steady your paperwhites as they grow is to start them in plain water until the roots begin to show and the stems are a couple of inches in length. Once they reach this stage, drain the water and use an alcohol/water mix by mixing one part liquor to seven parts water. Continue to water them with this 5% alcohol mixture and they should stay upright and happy. Use the alcohols mentioned above for best results. This mix stunts the growth of the stems by a third to one half but doesn’t affect the size or production of the blooms.

You should also keep your paperwhites in a bright, yet cool room as they will grow at a slower rate in the cool room. The prefered room temperature would be closer to 60 degrees than 70 degree’s F. You can also place the bulbs in a container of pebbles, water or soil rather than growing the bulbs in a water filled container. Maintain the waterline below the bulb level or they may rot. Water the roots, not the bulb. This holds true for Amaryllis and hyacinths as well.

Also, apparently bulbs started after the new year will grow more quickly and and be shorter plants than bulbs started in December.

Choosing your Amaryllis bulbs

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Choose your Amaryllis bulbs carefully. You will find that bulbs that have started to grow while in the store displays are often stressed, and in that first year the flowers will be smaller- if they produce any at all.

You want to pick bulbs that either don’t have, or whose bud tip is barely showing. Make sure that the bulb still feels firm when you touch it as well. I’ve often found bulbs rotting in the store shelves because they’ve been kept in a too warm area.

Many of the bulb kits contain a bag of peat moss, a cheap plastic pot and a small bulb. You might do better trying to find larger bulbs as they often grow and have two stalks instead of one. It’s far better to perhaps purchase loose quality bulbs of a good size and plant them yourself in a good soil mix. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the results.

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