Repurpose Net For Decorating Christmas

Ping. Ping. Ping. As the needles fall from your Christmas tree are you wondering if you can repurpose it somehow?

Well, here are a few environmentally smart, garden-friendly ideas.

• Make it a living birdfeeder. Leave your tree in its stand or put it into a large pot or bucket weighted with rocks. Put it on your deck or patio where you can see it, or lean it against a fence.

Next, have fun decorating it with food for birds and other animals. Try apple or orange slices or halves, suet cakes, dried fruit, mini bagels, bunches of dried seed heads or berries or whole sunflower heads.

Spread a peanut butter and cornmeal mixture onto pinecones, then roll them in birdseed and hang. String popcorn for a festive garland.

Remember to use natural materials like raffia, jute or cotton string for hangers and stringing. This avoids harming animals with treated materials.

• Create shelter. Lay down your tree in the corner of your property or at the edge of your woods or meadow to give birds and other small animals cover from predators and nasty weather.

This is a gift that keeps giving. As it decays in the coming years, your former Christmas tree's wood will feed many living creatures and the soil.

• Make mulch. Break out your shredder or join with neighbors in renting a shredder to chip branches for mulch.

• Create compost. Shredded wood can also be added to your compost pile. And no, the conifer needles will not acidify a compost pile.

• Winterize your perennials. Cut branches from your tree and lay them over your perennials to protect them from snow and reduce frost heaving. Remove the branches in early spring.

• Feed your fire pit. Cut boughs can be used to feed your fire pit. Evergreens tend to have an abundance of sap, so use their branches as fire starters and fuel only in outdoor fire pits, not indoor fireplaces or stoves.

• Beautify containers. Use cut branches to fill your outside containers. Add some colorful winterberries, dried seed heads and a bow for an attractive winter look.

• Build garden edging. Dried and sliced 2-inch trunk rounds can be set on end in a shallow trench to make a natural border for garden beds.

• Get crafty. Let the wood dry for several months, then slice the trunk and branches into rounds for crafting. A quick online search on "repurposing Christmas trees" yields many craft options from trivets and coasters to napkin rings and ornaments. God bless Pinterest.

• Donate your tree. Towns often collect Christmas trees to chip and use as mulch. In Washington County, recycling drop-off stations are accepting trees through Jan. 30. Get details at https://www.washco-md.net/ solid-waste-recycling/.

Your Christmas tree can live on in a dozen different ways after the holidays. I hope this year you'll be creative in giving those boughs new life.

Annette Cormany is the Extension educator for horticulture and the Master Gardener program in Washington County for the University of Maryland. She can be reached at 301-791-1604 or acormany@umd.edu.