Greening my Christmas Tree - for Good

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Okay, I know what you're thinking . . . why the heck am I writing about Christmas trees at the beginning of April?

Hang in there, there really is a method to my madness, and it isn't only because evidently I spend way too much time on The Weather Channel.

A couple of days ago I read how retired real Christmas trees are being recycled to help mitigate the loss of wetlands in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Christmas trees buffer the action of the tides, which help to retain more sediment, which allows marsh plants to take root and become established, thus helping to prevent the losses of marshlands that had become commonplace prior to putting the plan into action.

In 1988, the first year the plan was put into action, over 7,000 Christmas trees were donated to the cause, both helping to protect the local coastline and to keep those trees out of hard-pressed local landfills.

In recent years, the project has partnered with the Louisiana National Guard, which air drops the bundles of Christmas trees into place, giving the Guard members much-needed training, while allowing the trees to be placed in mere hours, rather than the weeks it once took.

According to the above article, “The project has re-established hundreds of acres of marshland in the Bayou Sauvage NWR over the last 23 years.”

Then today, I read a brief overview of the creation and opening of the new Katrina Flooded House Museum, in New Orleans, a depressing but probably needed look at what people had to come home to after the waters receded.

Immediately following, I came across this article: Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees: Which is Better for the Environment?.

Spoiler alert: according to the author, it's pretty much a wash, as “live” trees are used for only a season, whereas artificial trees are typically used for around a decade, and are then often passed on or donated to continue their decorative function for others. And, many people who use “live” trees drive considerable distances to get them, particularly if they cut them down themselves, which adds substantially to the environmental cost.

Personally, I think the conclusions of the article are hogwash. Neither cutting down living trees as decorations nor manufacturing plastic trees from oil qualifies in any way as “good for the environment.”

But I have found what, for me, is the perfect solution.

My family always used live trees, and we never used, or even owned, an artificial tree. My mom was from the mountains of New Mexico, and if it didn't smell like a pine tree, she wouldn't let it in the house.

Our family tradition was quite simple, yet profound; once New Year was over, typically on the 6th of January, we ceremoniously removed the decorations, put them away until next year, and burned the tree in our fireplace. Waste not, want not. The tree that had warmed our hearts through the holidays warmed our bodies as we bid it farewell.

Once I moved out on my own, I felt the same as my mom . . . I never cared for artificial trees, as they seemed to exemplify the crass commercialism that Christmas has become in our society. I never cared for flocked trees, or glittered trees, or any of that. Just a real tree, as fresh as possible, and preferably one that smelled like the conifer woods of the Rockies.

Still . . . I hated the idea of so many trees being cut down every year. I hated the fact that tree farms are conventional monocultures, which typically clear cut anything that can't be sold, destroying untold acreage of once-prolific habitat, and often dependent upon toxic chemicals to bring their product to market. And Christmas tree lots have always felt sad.

What I always wanted was not a “live” tree, which of course is in truth a dying tree, cut down in its youth; but a truly living tree, roots intact, able to live inside for the few weeks we kept it decorated, then outside for the rest of the year.

The problem is, of course, that the conifers I wanted most as a Christmas tree, such as the majestic Norway spruce, or even your more typical pines, firs or spruces, would be miserable inside the typical home in a pot, as it would be far too warm for them, not humid enough, and they would suffer and quite possibly even die.

Enter the Norfolk Island Pine.. Now before you say “That's been done before,” please keep in mind that when my mom and I first use one as an outdoor Christmas tree, when we lived in Santa Monica, California, neither of us had even heard of one being used as a Christmas tree.

We had that tree for years, until it was taller than me, but then someone decided that they wanted it more badly than we did, and stole it out of our front yard. Damn.

My next was in Seminole, Florida, where my ex-husband and I had a number of “live” trees as well, prior to my purchasing the living tree with the intent of making it our permanent Christmas tree. The first couple of years we put it on top of a cedar chest, to give it added height, but soon it had grown enough that that was no longer necessary.

When we split, the tree moved with me to my home in Largo, and I continued using it as my Christmas tree until we moved to Tennessee. At that point, both cars and trucks were fully loaded, and as it was too tall to use in the new house anyway, and wouldn't survive outside in Tennessee, I gave it to one of my neighbors.

But I knew I wouldn't be without it for long. So about a year later, Lowe's was closing out their post-holiday plants, and I lucked into a very nice specimen, though unfortunately it had been glittered.

Really? Glitter on a living tree? That's like gold plating a gem-quality pearl. Ah, well.

It was meant for me anyway, and I was determined to give it a good home. Auraucarias and I have always gotten along, as it is a tropical plant that is easily cared for, as long as you know what it wants. Among those things are lots of light, warmth, and water when needed, but not too much. When they fail, it is usually from overwatering.

This started out as a table top tree for the first couple of years, but like our others before it, Norfolk Island Pines are a fast growing species, so it is now good sized, though still nowhere near as large as the one we left behind in Largo.

Of course this tree lives inside for months at a time, not the few weeks it would in California or Florida, as freezing or even near-freezing temperatures would kill it quickly. Here is a photo that shows its size in relation to the triple window in our dining room that it dominates.

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We did have an issue initially, as both Musica and Truffle like to pee and poo in the soil of unprotected plants, but I think we came up with a fairly ingenious solution, albeit low tech.

The pierced bricks came with the house, so the cost was nil, and I actually like the look of them overall . . . far better than the pieces of concrete Marek initially suggested. And it works like a charm, as none of the cats even try to get on it now, and clearly digging in the soil is out of the question.

In any case, the tree has been happily living inside half the year for at least five years now, and it is the focal point of our dining room, where it has the place of honor directly in front of our west-facing windows. And, once the weather warms up for good, and all danger of frost is past, it will live on our covered front porch until next October or so.

The only downside is that the branches of Araucaria are not as strong as your typical conifers, and so I hang my heaviest ornaments from the top lid of the clay pot. The tree is truly beautiful when decorated, beautiful in its own way when not, and gives us oxygen and helps clean our indoor air, so there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by following my lead.

I am dedicating this post to #earthdeeds, and to further this project, half the liquid proceeds earned from this post will be transferred to them to further their projects.

The photos above were taken by me with my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

Thanks for reading. I'll do my best to get back to a regular schedule of posting.

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