Live Christmas trees

I've read a few articles and other blog posts recently about using live trees for Christmas. Being as its about that time of year again, I thought I'd talk a bit about our Christmas trees. When I say live trees I don't mean the kind they cut from the tree farm but the ones that can be replanted.


Since we moved in here almost 10 years ago we've been getting live Christmas trees. Our motive initially wasn't the environmental impact, but was instead the improvement of the look of the front lawn. The yard next to the road had been planted with white pine trees when the house was built by the original owners but had since been overrun by boxelder. The picture to the left shows the spindly white pines compared to the larger boxelders (and our late dog Data). We removed all the boxelder to be used as kindling for the wood stove and to allow the white pines to grow without competition.

The yard near the road still had several gaps where the pine trees had been smothered out by the boxelder (I assume). One of the early Christmases in the house we decided to buy a live tree that we could then plant in the front.

Here's a link with a few tips on using a living Christmas tree. A couple of things from personal experience to keep in mind if you decide to take a greener road and use a live tree.

First, if you have the opportunity, dig your hole to plant the tree well before Christmas. I made the mistake of waiting until New Year's day to plant to first one we had and the ground was frozen, making it very difficult to dig a hole, let alone one big enough for the root ball.



Second, be prepared for the overall size of the tree. Our first experience was an eye opener to the amount of work to get the tree in the house. A "normal" size Christmas Tree is about 2+ feet taller if you account for the root ball and the size and weight of the root ball is something to contend with. We had two large men plus my wife to man handle the tree into the house and that was after backing the truck almost right up to the back door! They are heavy!! Of course, you have the weight to contend with when you take it back out to plant it.


Lastly, as someone more knowledgeable about trees may tell you, sometimes the trees just won't make it. We've been using live trees now for about seven years and have only had one die and I think we are fortunate.

If you have a place to put a tree, or even better a need for trees like we had, then it makes perfect sense to use a live Christmas tree because its cost effective. If you don't quite have a place or a need but still want to respect the environment, then you may find a place like this one in Oregon that takes care of planting it after Christmas so you don't have to. Either way, plan appropriately and thanks for doing your share.

The picture to the right is what the tree lawn looks like after we removed the boxelders. It's a different angle than the picture above, but the two trees above are the two trees on the left of this photo.

Most of the trees to the right in this photo are the ones we've planted. The very first tree we planted was not a white pine, it is the darker one that is to the right of center in the picture, it's about 20 ft tall today. The other trees don't look quite as good yet, but they are growing well.

In case you need some help making your decision or you already have a cut tree and want to know what to do with it after Christmas, below are a few helpful links:

Earth 911 - Picking the greenest tree
Disposing of or recycling your tree