Recycle your real Christmas tree.

Very interesting Scot. I did read that local councils or somebody like them are using old christmas trees to shore up river banks and provide safe havens for creatures etc. great idea eh? I heard it briefly on the radio and missed what would have been an interesting prog.

I forgot to send again. You may be able to hear the whole programme on iplayer if you know which station you were listening to? Our local council are starting to collect Christmas trees on the 2nd of January. That is too early for most people. We never take ours down until the 6th of January. I'm glad we have an artificial one. I wonder if placing them on the beaches which are being eroded by the sea would help.

Where I am, the council does not collect the trees and I have no wish to fill my car with pine needles on the way to the recycling centre. So, using it in the garden seems a much better way of dealing with it. Thank you, Scotsgran.

Wonderful suggestions there Scotsgran....I love the idea of hanging the bird food from it...

Lots of lovely ideas for the poor wee, dried out old trees!
Last year we planted our potted one and this year the tree was home made! I think I will use fallen evergreen branches next year!!

The branches can be used as props for Peas and other veg.

You can use the whole tree to help gap site for hedges (plant hedge plants around or allows natural regeneration of hedge plants).

Use needles to make acid soil/to suppress off weeds.

We cut ours in 3 and put it in the green bin for recycling by the council.

mine is to be shredded at the weekend as I am back at work tomorrow. then it will sit behind the garage for a year before becoing a mulch.

One of my neighbours has cut their tree in 3 and put it in the recycle bin (not enough as I can see it). The other neighbour has his beside the compost heaps. Shows you the variety of things people do. I am an artificial tree man myself much as I like the smell of pine trees I cannot be doing with a real one. I have real ones in my garden that I light up for the children.

What a lovely blog Scotsgran, So many use's very interesting:)

Some good ideas :o) I remember having real trees when we were kids. Can't remember what my dad used to do with them sfterwards.

In December 2010 I bought a dinky pot grown one from Tesco . It has lived happily in my garden for a year, even put on new growth... outwards rather than upwards so it looked a little more portly this Christmas. Lol.
This morning I undressed it, gave it a good drink and stood it out in the porch to aclimatise to an unheated environment. I hope it will enjoy having a bigger pot later this year and that it will enrich our festivities again next December. Fingers crossed, maybe I can persuade it to grow a little taller too. :-)

My fingers are crossed for your little tree too Xela. I hope it survives. I love this site there are so many kindred spirits out there. I had just finished the answer to Grandmage and pressed send when the power went off at 9am yesterday. We were reconnected at 9pm this evening. We have had a cosy time trapped in the house to escape falling slates from our own and the neighbours roofs. We also lost our Damson tree but never mind I will replace it. The greenhouse has lost some panes of glass so will need to inspect my seeds when the wind dies down. We don't have gas in the village but my 4 oven Esse Fairy cooker is coal fuelled. It is massive having been built in 1946 and we really appreciated the heat from it and our ability to enjoy hot food. We also keep our battery powered lights charged up for just such an emergency. We resorted to candle power tonight to use up the left over candles and it was delightful. I hope you are all well and safe