BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Container Gardening Christmas trees

Hi Everyone,

Todays is Epiphany being 5th January - 12 days after Christmas and the last day for Christmas decorations.

What do you do with your Christmas tree? Pine needles all shed? Do you just put it out with the trash or have you got other ideas?

For 'live' trees here in SA people use conifers that can be transplanted readily into a garden (given that they are rooted in pots), but cut down trees need to be sorted ... what do you do?

Cheers now

Hello one and all,

Well, here is something new to consider ... it's a verbatim report from Springwise and you can visit the site directly, hope you find it interesting!

Cheers.

In France, a fashion firm turns old Christmas trees into sexy lingerie.

Organic Lingerie is targeting the niche tree wastage industry and recycling unwanted pine trees into underwear for women.

France 9 Jan 2015

As anyone who's returned to work in the past week knows all too well, the festive season is truly over. In its wake, however, is the detritus of unwanted gifts, taken-down decorations and leftover food. We've previously seen Eden's Paper attempt to make Christmas more eco-friendly with its plantable gift wrap that can be grown into vegetables. Now Organic Lingerie is targeting the niche tree wastage industry by recycling unwanted pine trees into underwear for women.

Created by Paris-based Do You Green, the shop sells a variety of underwear, night clothes, lingerie and even men's pajamas, that are all made using a special material derived from pine trees. Called Pine Viscose, the fabric is made by treating the pine needles and bark from the trees and spinning it into an eco-friendly thread. Similar to Cashmere wool, Pine Viscose is silky and helps regulate body temperature and sweat through wicking. The dyes used by Do You Green are also sourced from non-toxic materials and the company has teamed up with designer Sophie Young to make the garments something consumers will likely actually want to wear.

Items in the Organic Lingerie shop range in the EUR 10 to EUR 50 region, or slightly more expensive for longer robes — in line with typical high street stores. Are there other ways that procurers could take advantage of seasonal wastage to optimize their sustainability efforts?

Website: www.organic-lingerie.com

Hi there all,

Well of course Christmas has passed and the trees have been taken way so this advice needs to be stretched a bit to any other tree that may have fallen or been cut down.

You can use the trunks and the larger branches nicely for several reasons. Slice (or get it done by a neighbor etc. with the right machinery) the trunks and branches into salami style roundels, about 4-6" thick.

You can make a pathway to heaven (or your favourite plant or meditation nook), you can use singles as pot props or raisers and if you happen to be gardening in a yard and have space to make your own compost, then you can use them as a base for the compost heap.

I saw an idea in a magazine too where someone had chosen the small branches, sliced them a uniform 3" thicknesses and had stuck them to an end balcony wall. The effect was electric and lent itself very nicely to the rest of her mainly succulent container garden.

What else do you have to say about using up spent trees? Do tell.

Cheers

I'm not a Christmas tree expert. We bought a plastic one a few decades ago and we just stuff it back in its box on Epiphany.

But, Lestie, I can tell all your readers something *not* to do with a Christmas tree. And that is put it in the fireplace after Christmas and leave it until it's nearly next Christmas. (It was in California, not much need for the fireplace.) And then - after it's had a year to dry out - decide to burn it.

Well, my friend having set a match to it, it didn't so much start to burn as explode! Fortunately, she had a fire screen which got shoved into place and we managed to extinguish some sparks that had escaped. And we didn't have to get out the buckets and dial the emergency services, but it was touch and go.

Hi Mona,

Thanks for this - and another post I would have made covers just this subject ... as if you want to burn your now repurposed pine/fir tree as firewood, it's not a good idea to do so right after it is take down as the wood is still wet (resin?) and can pose a real fire hazard.

That you had a blow-up a year later when the wood must have been dry is interesting. Did you ever find out why this happened? Had it been treated in someway with a combustible material?

Anyway, rather than burn it (especially indoors), and of course only if it is untreated, the wood chips it makes can be used for an excellent natural mulch for the garden in any format, and for all seasons come to that.

Did anyone get a wood chipper for Christmas? Well there you are then - smile now.

Cheers

Re the Christmas tree in the fireplace . . . . No, Lestie, I can't imagine the wood had been treated, but of course it was very dry. I think it was all the dry needles - they caught fire almost instantly. If there had been treated with something combustible, I think rather than the WHOOOOSH! which actually resulted, my friend would have been lucky to have a house left.

Hi there Mona,

My suggestion of the wood being treated was just a guess at trying to find a reason for the fire.

Guess the pine needles could have caused it - 'curiouser and curiouser' as Alice would say ... I like to know which often gets me into trouble!

Cheers for the nonce