You’ve decorated your home for the holiday with live greens and a gorgeous tree, but their usefulness doesn’t need to end with the holidays. The Growing Place offers these simple and practical ideas for re-purposing your evergreen trees, holiday wreaths, and boughs.
Trees for the Birds
After the holidays, place your cut tree in the garden as a shelter for birds. Choose a back corner or out of the way place and birds will welcome the additional shelter from winter weather and predators. Or, stake it upright, add a bird feeder in or under the tree and a heated birdbath nearby and you’ve created a backyard bird sanctuary. Come spring the tree can be cut up and added to the compost pile.
Protecting Plants
Place branches over shallow-rooted plants such as mums, coral bells, strawberries and spring bulbs to insulate their roots through freezing and thawing.
Christmas wreaths, stripped of their decorations, are just the perfect size to place around sensitive perennials for added insulation.
Acid-loving and shallow-rooted plants such as rhododendron and holly appreciate a layer of evergreens as the needles add a slight acid boost. When removing boughs in the spring, give them a shake to let the needles fall and mix in with your mulch.
Mulch ‘Endless Summer’ and other varieties of Hydrangea macrophylla with evergreen boughs. They will add another layer of protection for next year’s sensitive buds.
Now that we’ve had a couple of hard freezes to set dormancy, tender roses such as hybrid tea, grandiflora, and floribunda benefit from a layer of compost, then leaves or straw and a final layer of evergreen boughs.
Outdoor Decorating
Re-purpose your evergreen boughs to easily create a natural winter look you’ll enjoy until spring. Instead of leaving large expanses of mulched beds where last year’s annuals were planted, spruce up your beds, especially around your entranceways, with a layer of evergreen boughs. Mix and match different kinds for a richer look and perhaps add some red or yellow twig dogwood stems or a birch log for a little bit of color.
The holidays may be over, but your live greens and trees can keep on giving.
Posted on 01/01/2015 at 12:00 AM