Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful time with your families and friends over the holiday season. If you bought a Christmas tree with roots, I am here with some tips on planting it out in your garden. You can then either keep it in your garden as an ornamental tree or re-pot it to be used next year.
If possible, try to acclimatise the tree to the colder outdoor weather if it is particularly frosty and cold, ensuring you keep it well-watered. Your first step is choosing its position, bear in mind that if your Christmas tree is a Norway Spruce or Nordman Fir they grow to over 200ft tall when fully grown. Both these trees thrive better in acidic soil with moist conditions.
When planting the tree, choose a day when the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. Make sure you dig the hole to the correct depth; the root ball and trunk should not be any deeper in the ground than they were in the pot. Before transplanting the tree, make sure it is thoroughly watered to hydrate the roots and to make it easier to remove from the pot. To help improve the establishment of the tree, apply mulch around the base and ensure the soil is kept moist.
But if you do decide that you do not want to keep your tree, ensure you recycle it. You can either take it to your local green recycling centre or add it to your compost heap. If you choose the latter, be mindful that this will take a long time. You could also shake off the needles onto your soil as mulch or chop it up to use for firewood.
I will be back next month with some jobs and tips to get your veg patch up and running.
Willie the Worm
