Now that the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over for another year most of us have taken down our decorations and they are all packed away.
The last to come down tends to be the Christmas tree. It has looked beautiful for the past few weeks, all decorated and glistening but now its time is over. If it is a real tree what do you do with it?
I have just come back from a walk and seen a few sad trees laid out on their sides in front of gardens. I wonder if the owners are waiting for the council to take them away or if they will be loaded up in the car and taken down to the communal tip...
However, maybe there are uses for the old tree that wildlife can benefit from more. Here are some ideas.
Chop off the branches from the trunk. Lay them over some old logs and cuttings and they will provide a really protective and warm shelter for wildlife throughout the really cold months of January and February.
You can site this in an out of the way place if you like. A corner of a garden behind a shrub or behind a shed or garage would do well.
With the trunk, you could lay it out as it is full length somewhere again out of the way to rot down naturally and in turn provide a home for all manner of insects and woodlice and beetles.
With the trunk, you could lay it out as it is full length somewhere again out of the way to rot down naturally and in turn provide a home for all manner of insects and woodlice and beetles.
If it is too large then you could chop it up into smaller logs and again stack them up in a corner to provide a home for insects and later when Hedgehogs and other mammals emerge for the spring they will enjoy foraging around the woodpile you created.
Blackbirds will enjoy kicking up the leaves and branches to find dinner and Robins will come to investigate too.
If you own or can hire the equipment you could even shred and mulch the tree and use it for protecting certain plants and shrubs over the year.
Maybe it could even be the beginning of a small stumpery.
Just a few simple ideas. What do you do with your old Christmas tree? Let me know your uses and inventive ideas.
Blackbirds will enjoy kicking up the leaves and branches to find dinner and Robins will come to investigate too.
If you own or can hire the equipment you could even shred and mulch the tree and use it for protecting certain plants and shrubs over the year.
Maybe it could even be the beginning of a small stumpery.
Just a few simple ideas. What do you do with your old Christmas tree? Let me know your uses and inventive ideas.
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