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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, How mulch-able are your branches!
I've been longing for this moment ever since Deb carted our first ever REAL Christmas tree into the lounge. It's been a tormentuous affair watching this no-longer-live tree pine (pardon the pun) for my compost heap.
The kids were counting down the sleeps until Santa arrived (yer...we do Santa in our house) while I was crossing off the days until the tree was finally MINE!!!!
Each day it got a little bit drier and a tad droopier until my wonderfully accommodating wife said "Enough was enough!" Apparently, the drool on the carpet was becoming unsightly. So, off came the tinsel, the adornments and any unpresented gifts were packed into a box.
And, before you could say "Where did that Christmas tree go?" I had the mulcher set up and was madly lopping its limbs. Oh the Joy! How good is Christmas??
Five minutes later, the whole tree - minus the stem - had been blitzed into my compost heap and that wonderfully pine fragrance covered up the sins of Christmas preparations past. Unfortunately, the stem was just a little too wide for my shredder so it will head to the local refuse site where they will put it through their gigantuan mulcher and sell it back to me at $5 a trailer load.
My only regret is that we didn't get a bigger tree.
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Comments
don't forget to let the chips stand for at least six months (maybe more) to decompose for a while.
The chips will be extremely acid too.
Posted by: Philip Voice | January 4, 2008 3:28 PM
I wrestled our tree out today, dropping needles everywhere, but it'scurrently reclining on the back deck because there's no where to put it that isn't 2-3 feet deep in snow. Normally I would cut it up and use it as protective mulch over things that need winter protection, but there's enough snow for THAT this year; so I'll probably put the tree down where I am developing a brush wall for wildlife. It's all good.
Posted by: jodi | January 5, 2008 10:56 AM
I tried to leave this comment earlier, Stuart, but it didn't go through.
But I wanted to let you know what a great addition to your home and garden the new pergola is. I especially love the brick floor. Brick is commonly used in Southern U.S. gardens, though not so much in central Texas.
Posted by: Pam/Digging | January 6, 2008 11:32 AM
Every year I clip each branch off into small sizes into a bag while the tree is on the stand and after I have taken the decorations off for two reasons.
First I dont need to drag a huge dry tree through my home dropping needles a and knocking things along the way.
Second I find any hidden decorations I missed earlier. First stage is clipping branches back to where the lights are so when I remove them they are on the edge of the now shortened branches.
New idea this year is to take the trunk of the tree and use it in my garden as a bean pole!
-enjoy.
Posted by: clipper | January 9, 2008 10:20 PM