What to do With Your Christmas Tree after the Holidays

What to do With Your Christmas Tree after the Holidays

1.) Make a feeder for birds and squirrels!

First, remove all ornaments and lights. Take the bare tree and move it out to your yard still in the stand. String it with popcorn and cranberries, sprinkle with birdseed or hang bird feeders from the boughs. Smear pine cones with peanut butter, hang apple rings or orange halves. Hang hollowed-out orange halves in the tree and fill them with nuts.

Enjoy the show as the birds feast on your gift to nature! Not only will the tree provide food for wildlife during the cold winter days, but it can also be a place for them to hide from cold winds.

2.) Mulch the tree for your garden. It can then be used in the landscape as a cover around trees, shrubs, and flowers. This helps insulate the soil, conserve soil moisture, and retard weed growth. It also helps return nutrients to the soil as it breaks down. Pine needles are great for ground covering and mulch.

3.) Christmas trees make excellent material to build brush piles for wildlife. These piles provide cover for small animals and birds. The animals use the piles to hide from predators, as safe resting places and to raise their young. Start with larger limbs or rocks for the base and pile several trees on top. Perhaps your neighbor will want to add their trees to your pile.

4.) If you have plants that need covering for the winter, remove the tree’s branches from the trunk. The branches can then be used as a blanket over perennials or other tender plants in your garden.

5.) Greensboro has 3 Christmas tree disposal sights through January 15, 2011.

  • Guilford County Prison Farm, 7315 Howerton Road, Gibsonville. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From Highway 61, take County Farm Road then turn right onto Howerton Road. The drop-off point is one-quarter mile on the right. Call 449-4720 for more information.
  • Piedmont Triad Farmers’ Market, off I-40 at Sandy Ridge Road. Open 6 am to 6 pm, seven days a week. Call 605-9157 for more information.
  • Tabernacle United Methodist Church, behind the ball field at the corner of Woody Mill and Methodist Roads. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Trees may be disposed of at the City’s landfill but normal yard waste disposal fees apply.

6.) Your tree can also be collected on normal trash days in Greensboro, Winston Salem and High Point.  For regular trash pick-up, remember to

  • Place tree at the curb by 7 am
  • Remove all lights, ornaments, wire, tinsel, and tree stands
  • Trees that are over five feet tall should be cut in half or into manageable segments
This post has 2 Comments | Would you like to leave a comment?

2 Comments

  1. Lance.

    I went online to check it out and update the post that I had originally written in 2009.

    Thank you for asking, and Happy New Year!

  2. Does the pick-up info apply to Christmas 2011?

Leave a Comment