Create a Garden Habitat with an Old Christmas Tree

Do you buy a real Christmas tree every year and then not know what to do with it after Christmas is over? If your Christmas Tree is in a pot with the roots still in tact, then plant it in a nice spot in your garden! If your Christmas Tree has been cut and put in a stump however, then here are a few ideas to give you some inspiration!

Create Habitats

Garden bugs and wildlife like to explore and take shelter in natural and unkempt areas of the garden. By cutting your Christmas Tree branches and trunk up into smaller pieces and piling them up in a quiet corner of the garden, bugs and hedgehogs will appreciate the home! It will attract wildlife and help to bring your garden to life.

Help Your Plants

Long, straight branches from your Christmas Tree can be used as supports for your plants when spring comes around. Branches can also be chopped up smaller, or even put through a chipper where possible, and then applied to the surface of your soil to act as a mulch. This will help to keep your bedding plants warm and protect them from any January frost.

Feed the Birds

The round stump that your Christmas Tree comes in can also be useful in your garden. Place it somewhere in your garden and leave it in the same spot for a few days. Slugs, snails and other creepy crawlies will crawl under it to stay warm and safe. Every now and then turn your stump over and move it slightly. Birds like Thrushes and Blackbirds will be very thankful and will enjoy feeding on them.

Help Your Local Coastline

If you’ve already got quite a lot going on in your garden, Christmas Trees are becoming a valuable resource on our British coastlines helping to build up natural sea defences. At our local beach in Formby, the National Trust rangers ask for old Christmas Trees to be taken down to the beach each year for them to create a protective barrier against the sand dunes. They help to catch sand blown up from the beach and build up the defensive dunes in the hope that it will help to stabilise the position of the coastline. Check out your local news to see if similar schemes are going on at a beach near you and play a part in protecting our coastlines!

So when January comes around in future, don’t just throw your Christmas Tree out, hopefully our tips have given you some inspiration to help bring your garden to life or even help your local environment!