Will this work? I have my doubts.

Mark 11 Comments

We have bought a Christmas tree in a pot – and the idea is that we use it this year, keep it alive and then use it again next year. Sounds good in theory but it depends on the ‘keeping it alive’ bit, doesn’t it?

I’m hoping that at least I don’t kill it before Christmas.

This sustainability lark is quite tricky, isn’t it? Here’s a guide for Christmas tree buyers.

[registration_form]

11 Replies to “Will this work? I have my doubts.”

  2. Even you’ll struggle to kill it by Christmas, Mark ! Just give it a bit of water and it’ll be happy. For re-use, I’d suggest planting it out but still inside a bigger pot (with holes) if you can get one – the roots will find water but it won’t be such a shock when you dig it up + it’ll be a little like bonsai – checking it and stopping it outgrowing chateau Avery.

    After Christmas I go around and collect several Christmas trees, chop them up and use them as kindling in the woodburner, for which they are great – but ONLY use if you have a lined chimney !

  3. Put it in one of those pots which air prunes the roots to prevent it getting potbound, and keep it fed and watered.

  4. I was surprised and very pleased to once read in a centre spread article in Third Sector News on reducing waste at Xmas that they said just get a plastic Xmas tree and reuse it every year. I like the idea of judicious use of plastics making a massive reduction in the use of wood products which it can. Having a live, hopefully ‘reusable’ Xmas tree in a pot is a good idea too – certainly an improvement on what must be a significant amount of land given over to produce disposable ones, that could instead have been real wildlife habitat. It can go the opposite way – the Woodland Trust pushed to get the maximum fine for the illegal felling of some ancient woodland in Kent that was carried out to create space to grow Xmas trees. Bah Humbug!!!

    1. Overall, there is probably no finer tree than the Norway Spruce, certainly for the first twenty years, as a site for passerines building open nests.
      A plantation with various size trees , grown for the Christmas market, can bring fantastic diversity to a farmed landscape, if sited in the right
      place.

  5. I bought one 3 years ago and planted it in the garden after christmas. It really shot up this year.

  6. I bought my house in the seventies. The previous owner must have planted a Christmas tree near the back door. It was only 3 feet high at the time. Once it had grown much more than the height of the house and was over 500mm in diameter I realised that it had to go. It did miss the house at it was felled.

  7. We succeeded with that strategy with a tree for about 3 years.. but then it started to be a very odd shape to fit into the same space inthe small room…pesky tree kept growing…. pretty much gave up on a tree after that, but we do sometimes bring in branches to decorate from birch or something else pretty if we have some lying around (which we often do!)……

  9. Sink the pot in the ground, or nearly so. That works, though they still need water in a dry summer. They just need a habitat they can survive in.

Comments are closed.