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Don’t Kick Your Christmas Tree to the Curb! Repurpose or Recycle It.

January 2, 2015 By Robin Strong Elton 3 Comments

To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice
as well as its feature.

―Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

The ball has dropped, it’s after New Year’s and time to undeck the halls and untrim the trees. Every year I see tons of trees sitting curbside waiting to be picked up with the trash and taken to the landfill; it makes me sad that they had purpose for such a short time. While I do think real trees are better than fake (especially if you buy one from a local, family owned business!) we can do better, people.

Get more out of your Christmas tree: repurpose or recycle it by giving it back to nature.

Gimme shelter

Birds and other wildlife need shelter from the elements and any stray cats or other predators that may be lurking. Simply drag your tree out to the yard rather than the curb, or make a brush pile with the branches. A simple family family project if you’re feeling festive is to hang some pine cone “ornaments” rolled in peanut butter and rolled in sunflower seeds to decorate your gift to your feathered and furry neighbors. (More edible ornament ideas for wildlife here.)

Mulch much?

Insulate your flower beds against cold temps with your pine needles. They’ll also suppress weeds, help retain moisture without allowing the soil to become compacted and are especially good around acidic-favoring plants like roses. Pine needles are soft to walk over, and just look more natural and woodsy than your typical store bought mulches— you’re not going to get a ton out of your one tree, of course; consider asking your neighbors if you can have theirs too.

If you’re local (upper Delaware), you can drop your tree off at a DNREC site where they’re recycled with other yard waste and ground into mulch. I believe this mulch is available periodically for New Castle County residents for free.

Worm Food

If you’re a composter, pine needles will keep your pile nice and fluffy so it stays aerated and “hot.” They can take a while to break down though, so it’s recommended that you either run them over with a lawn mower before adding or use the needles that have already spent a season pulling mulch duty. Keep pine needles to about 10% of your total compost pile at any given time.

Donate

Check around for local restoration efforts or animal sanctuaries that are asking for tree donations. In Louisiana they use them to restore the wetlands; in other places leftover Christmas trees preserve sand dunes. Locally, the Tri-State Bird Rescue adds trees to the birds’ cages for “cover, perches and warmth” and to make them more natural, less stressful; you can take evergreens there from 9-5 seven days a week. Some zoos and animal sanctuaries will accept trees for animal enrichment (drop off to the main lot of the Plumpton Park Zoo in Maryland, locals).

I’ve also heard that people hang on to the pine needles, sealed tight in the freezer, and simmer on the stovetop or pack into sachets for natural air freshening. I’ve not tried this so I don’t know how effective it is, but it can’t hurt to try.

Any other ways to repurpose or recycle your Christmas tree? Let me know!

Small Space, Low Budget Gardening Tips (Lessons learned from the Flower Show)

March 12, 2012 By Robin Strong Elton Leave a Comment

I love spring anywhere,
but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.
―Ruth Stout

Oooohhh it’s that time of year again. And even though I’ve been told I’m not allowed to garden this year due to my repeated inability to bring a veggie garden to fruition… I’ve got that yearning. To get my hands dirty. To plant seeds and make great plans.

Gardening is the purest form of optimism. It’s the embodiment of hope.

Anyway, at the Philadelphia Flower Show there was an exhibit by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society that I found hugely inspirational. Look how many herbs, fruits and veggies they managed to cram into a space about the size of a typical city rowhome backyard! Is that corn?

It’s a beautiful illustration of how you don’t need a lot of land and a ton of money to grow your own produce: enough to make a difference in your diet (and likely your neighbors’ diets as well).

Small Space, Low Budget Gardening Tips
(Lessons learned from the Flower Show)

1. Raised beds rock the house.

The picture above has raised beds (and a walkway made with boards and a seat made of part of a tree trunk). Raised beds mean you don’t have to go digging down into your dirt and then amend it; you can start off with good, clean, well-balanced dirt to give your plants an extra boost.

2. Think inside the box. Or bell jar.

Cold frames and glass jars help protect from nips of frost, extending your growing season.

3. Look up, down, and all around.

Vertical gardening is an awesome technique to increase your square yardage for growing (and ultimately increasing your yield). Think trellises, wooden pallets to make walls of plants, archways, cages.

Cherry tomatoes grown on a simple archway

Wall made of lettuce!

4. Gardening doesn’t need to be fancy.

Beds neatly hemmed in by logs. Oyster shells to create a pathway. Cages made from thin branches. Those wooden paint stirrers from hardware stores as row markers. Seats made from tree stumps. Used wooden pallets. Old windows for cold frames. Produce section twist ties for supporting and training plants. Pretty much anything with a hollow center as a planter… this is recycling at its best, and gardening at its least expensive. Plus, I think using as many natural materials as possible makes a garden so pretty.

5. Seeds are cheap.

Add love, time and effort and the return is bountiful. Freeze up your surplus for those winter months when the price of produce soars! (I was paying $3.99 A POUND for red peppers this winter! But I can buy a pepper plant for $2 at my farmers market.) Check out this breakdown of the most cost effective plants to grow— salad greens are #3 and soooo simple to grow yourself. Not to mention, way better tasting than salad-in-a-bag or trucked-in-from-afar!

Share the wealth by planting a row for the hungry or checking with your local food kitchen to see if they’ll take garden donations. Turn your garden plot into a political statement.

Garden for victory. For your health. For your kids. For your mental well-being. For your wallet.

$10 of seeds = one ton of tomatoes

Are you growing fruits, veggies, herbs in your garden this year?

What are you planting?

Please excuse the quality of the Flower Show shots. I had to resort to my pop-up flash.

Edible and Organic Gardening and the 2012 Flower Show

March 3, 2012 By Robin Strong Elton 3 Comments

Here in the greater Philadelphia region, we’ve got spring fever… and the only prescription is more Flower Show 🙂

I’m particularly excited about the garden-to-table offerings this year, plus presentations by Organic Gardening magazine. Now. I have two media passes, which means I can go once with a friend and stick around pretty much all day, or I can go twice for about 3 hours each time (so the puppy doesn’t have to stay crated for too long). What do you think? Which events are “can’t miss?”

Sunday, March 4th:
11:00 AM Charlie Nardozzi, “Eat Your Lawn: How to Turn Your Yard into an Edible Landscape”
11:00 AM Sally McCabe, “Building Raised Beds”
1:00 PM Ari Miller, “Anatomy of a Green Roof: The Bus Shelter Green Roof Initiative”
1:00 PM Charlie Nardozzi, “Eat Your Lawn: How to Turn Your Yard into an Edible Landscape”
2:00 PM Doug Hall, “Kick Your Chemical Dependency: An 8-Step Program”
3:00 PM Ryan Burrows & Michael Coraggio, “Living Walls: Taking Landscapes to New Heights”
4:00 PM Don Shump, “High-rises and Honey Bees: An Introduction to Urban Beekeeping ”
4:00 PM Ken Druse, “Natural Companions”
7:00 PM Venelin Dimitrov, “Cover Crops – Rollin’ in Green Manure”

Monday, March 5th:
10:30 AM Amy Goldman, “Fruity Vegetables: Tomatoes, Pumpkins, and Melons for the Passionate Grower”
11:00 AM Josh Morin, “Out On a Limb!! Pruning Your Trees and Shrubs the Right Way!”
11:30 AM Niki Jabour, “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener”
12:00 PM Coach Mark Smallwood, “Straw Bale Gardening: No land, No soil, No problem!”
12:30 PM Lorraine Kieffer, “Growing & Using Herbs Naturally”
1:00 PM Kevin Staso, “The Renaissance of Native Plants”
2:00 PM PHS Staff, “Vegetable Gardening & the Changing Climate”
5:00 PM Paul Split, “Starting Seeds Organically”

Tuesday, March 6th:
11:30 AM Diane Ott Whealy, “How One Heirloom Flower Saved Thousands of Vegetables”
12:00 PM Lorrie Baird, “Growing Up the Green Wall Way”
12:30 PM Paul Split, “Organic Gardening in a Hanging Moss Basket”
3:00 PM Jeff Jabco, “A Green Roof on Your Home? What do you need to know?!”
5:00 PM David Siller, “Wild Food That’s Wildly Tasty!”

Wednesday, March 7th:
10:30 AM Napua Harbottle, “Learning from Our Ancestors/Hawaiian Medicine”
11:00 AM Shannon Carmody, “Planning Your Garden for Seed Saving”
12:30 PM Mike McGrath, “Growing Great-Tasting Tomatoes”
1:00 PM Patrick Cullina, “Dynamic Urban Landscapes: Transforming Communities with Plants & Re-imagined Spaces”
1:00 PM Ralph Rhoads, “Worm Composting”
2:00 PM Kerry Mendez, “Easy Soil Tips for Bodacious Vegetable and Flower Gardens”
2:00 PM Barbara Tollen, “Chickens in Your Backyard”
3:00 PM Thomas M. Reber, “Sustainable Centerpieces”

Thursday, March 8th:
11:00 AM Melinda Zoehrer, “Bringing Butterflies Into Your Garden”
2:00 PM Clarena Tolson, “Composting”
2:00 PM Greg Paige, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Integrated Pest Management for a Healthy Home Garden”
4:00 PM Lelayna Klein, “Using Plants as Natural Dyes”
6:00 PM Chuck Hinkle, “Lawn Alternatives – No Mo’ Mowing!”
7:00 PM Mary Costello, “Container Gardening in Small City Spaces”

Friday, March 9th:
11:00 AM Greg Paige, “32 Flavors and THEN Some: Great Small Trees for the Garden”
11:30 AM Ken Greene, Heirloom Everything: From Seed to Seed
12:00 PM Ed MacFarland, “Herbs 101”
1:00 PM Carrie Wiles, “Lawn Alternatives: Why Mow?”
2:00 PM Christine Holt, “It’s Vegamental: Big Vegetables – Small Spaces”
4:00 PM Cheryl Wilks, “Flower Power – Impact on Wellness”
5:00 PM Chelsey Fields, “Edible Architecture – Outside the (Garden) Box Design Ideas for Vegetables”

Saturday March 10th:
9:00 AM Suzanne Wainwright, “The REAL beneficial insects in the garden (and it’s not who you think)”
11:00 AM Chris Stock, “Sustainable Materials for Building Gardens”
1:00 PM Evelyn Alemanni, “Planting Pride – Growing Great Communities”
2:00 PM Barry Draycott, “Making Organic Lawn Care Work for You”
2:00 PM Suzanne Wainwright, “Organic Insect Control”
3:00 PM Sharat Somashekara, “Small Space Food Production”
4:00 PM Pat Shanley, “Skyscrapers, Roses, & Sustainability”
4:00 PM Lisa Mosca, “Tips for Successful Organic Gardening”

Sunday March 11th:
12:00 PM Jim Bobb, “The Amazing Honey Bee”
12:00 PM Toni Ann Flanigan, “Planting a Forest in your Garden & Other Things that Shouldn’t Work But Do!”
12:30 PM Paul Simon, “Family Gardening”
1:00 PM and again at 2:00 PM Paul Tukey, The SafeLawns Foundation, and Victoria Rowell, NYT bestselling author and award-winning actress, “Lawn Games for Life: Get Off the Couch & Get Back Outside!”
1:00 PM Jane Kirkland, “Take a Family Nature Walk”
2:00 PM Nicole Juday, “Heirloom Plants for a Sustainable Garden”

Mind, those are ONLY the presentations that pertain to edible, organic, heirloom and urban gardening. There are TONS of classes, events, cooking demos, and more going on this week at the Flower Show! I can’t help but feel super lucky that it happens in my own backyard (so to speak).