Home » Plants & Animals » Southern Ontario Gardens » Five ways to use your Christmas tree in the winter garden

Five ways to use your Christmas tree in the winter garden

© Lorraine Flanigan

Traditionally, New Year's Day is when I take down the Christmas tree, carefully wrapping and packing away each and every one of my cherished decorations. Unlike most of the folks in my neighbourhood though, I don't plant the tree at the end of the driveway for the city recycling trucks to pick up and chop up for mulch and compost. Instead, I put it to good use in my garden, protecting rhododendrons and other tender shrubs. My nextdoor neighbours help out too by sacrificing their wonderful Fraser fir to my gardening gods.

Each year I pray that the snow will be deep and even, protecting my garden beds, but here in southern Ontario, more likely than not, the snow banks suffer from melt-down just when the plants least expect it. A recycled Christmas tree safeguards those plants from untimely exposure to drying, winter winds. It's also a haven for overwintering birds, fish and animals.

Here are five good ways to use your Christmas tree in the garden:

1. I know that a lot of you wrap your rhododendrons in burlap late in the fall or early winter. I never seem to have the time or the patience to do this, and besides, I like to look at my rhododendrons in winter, judging the temperature outside by how droopy and curled their leaves are. Instead of burlap, I use Christmas trees to protect them from our southern Ontario winters. If the snowdrifts are deep enough, I simply stand the tree upright on the windward side of the shrubs, with the trunk of the tree firmly planted in the snow. It looks very natural, and does an excellent job of cutting the winds. If there is little or no snow on the ground, I lay the tree on its side, nestled close to the rhodos. This way it looks like a low-growing evergreen shrub rather than a tree. Once spring comes, most of the needles have fallen onto the ground, providing good mulch for the rhodos.

2. The boughs of Christmas trees can also be used to protect tender perennials. Hellebores will sleep quietly under the soft boughs of fir or Scotch pine. Layer the boughs loosely so that they trap the snow, keeping the ground around your perennials cold until spring.

3. If you have a pond, place your tree in the pond over the winter. Evergreens make an excellent habitat for overwintering fish, providing them with a sheltered feeding area.