David Domoney: Caring for your living Christmas tree.
5 November 2024
CHOOSING A LIVING Christmas tree.
Christmas trees are central to the holiday season, creating an ambiance that many look forward to each year. While artificial trees and cut trees have their charms, opting for a living tree provides a unique opportunity to enjoy a more sustainable and long-lasting option. Choosing a living tree means you can replant it after the holiday season, allowing it to thrive for years to come. Not only will this add a beautiful evergreen to your garden, but it also contributes positively to the environment, providing shelter for wildlife and absorbing carbon dioxide.
Choosing Your Living Christmas Tree
When selecting a living tree, consider the type that will best suit your climate and garden space. Common choices include pines, spruces, and firs, each with distinct shapes, needle lengths, and growth rates. It’s essential to choose a tree with an intact root ball, often provided in a container or wrapped in burlap, to ensure a successful replanting.
Ensuring your tree is healthy enough after it is finished indoors will guarantee a long-lasting garden feature.
Caring for your Christmas tree indoors
Firstly, you want to leave your living tree outdoors for as long as possible, before bringing it in. Somewhere sheltered will be perfect, and make sure to water it. You are the custodian of any container-grown plants, so need to check regularly whether they require watering.
Once indoors, keep your tree away from any heat sources and in a cooler room if possible. Water it as and when it needs it, and don’t keep it indoors for longer than 12 days. The closer you wait to Christmas Day before bringing it in, the better. Use the tree as a guide too; if it starts to look like it’s struggling, it is probably time to get it back outside. Signs can include drooping branches and losing their needles. If the weather is particularly cold when your tree is ready to move outside, try to acclimatise it in a cooler room, like a garage for a couple of days first.
PLANTING A LIVE Christmas tree
Now that your potted Christmas tree is back outside, you need to decide whether to keep it potted or plant it out. You may want to base this decision on whether you want the option to bring it back indoors the following year. This may work well with potted Christmas trees, but digging up a planted one is unlikely to survive being planted again.
Planting your container-grown Christmas tree makes it a permanent feature of your garden, to enjoy and even decorate each festive period. They will live longer than trees continuing to be grown in pots and add some wonderful evergreen colour. Aim for a dry day on which the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. This will make digging much easier, and the conditions are better for the tree to settle into place.
Dig a suitable hole in your chosen position. Use the root ball of the existing tree as an indicator of how deep it should be and increase the width of your hole by around 15 cm. Position the tree in the hole, making sure it is deep and wide enough, and adjust accordingly. Ensure that the root ball is comfortably nestled in place, whilst the trunk is as exposed from the soil as in its original container.
Finally, firm it into place by filling the hole with soil and add a layer of mulch to help retain moisture and protect the roots, and water your tree regularly, especially during dry spells.
How to care for a Christmas tree
Planted or potted outdoor Christmas trees do not require too much maintenance to keep them happy. Immediately after planting, water your Christmas tree generously, and perhaps even add a mulch to help it retain the water and avoid weed growth competing with the roots.
You may have chosen to continue growing your container-grown Christmas tree in a pot in your garden. The key element to be aware of here is the size of the container. Christmas trees can grow quite large over the years, reaching 20 metres in just two decades when growing in the ground. With a larger tree comes a more extensive root system, which means a larger container. Upgrading the size of your container annually would be a sensible goal to accommodate the root requirements.
Planted trees require less maintenance, besides the occasional pruning once established. Simply remove any dead, dying, or diseased branches and any that interrupt its lovely conical silhouette.
How to decorate an outdoor Christmas tree
Whether it is planted in a pot or the ground, there are a few ways you can add a little bit of December sparkle to your garden in time for Christmas.
Particularly in the first couple of years after planting, your trees, whether in a pot or the ground, won’t be particularly tall, making them ideal for decorating. Also, if you’ve continued to grow your Christmas tree in a pot, it will be relatively mobile, so could be moved to your driveway, or somewhere else in the garden to create a festive centrepiece.
Whether it is your driveway or a small walkway up to your home in your front or back garden, Pavestone’s block paving offers that classic and distinctive cottage look that perfectly complements a cosy wintery lighting display.
Whether you want the warmer tones of Slimsett block paving in Brindle, or the more contemporary appearance of the variant greys of Anthracite, your pathway will look fantastic. Straight or swirling pathways add some magic and convenience when transporting your way through your garden, and a solid base upon which to place your potted Christmas tree. Also, pathways will make your tree much safer and easier to move as and when you choose.
How to put Christmas lights on an outdoor tree
One of the most effective ways to add a fun and festive atmosphere to your outdoor Christmas tree is simply with some outdoor-friendly lights.
Whether they are warm white, bright white, or a twinkling variety of cheerful colours, they can go a long way to create a lasting Christmassy impact. Try a few different methods to position your lights, depending on either your available time or aesthetic preference. You may choose to only apply the lights to one side if it will be positioned against a wall. Also, for a particularly effective and bright display, you can weave the lights around each branch for an almost self-lit effect.
Decorating an outdoor Christmas tree
You can choose to add some ornamental decorations too. Aim to choose outdoor-friendly ones, that are less likely to tarnish, and that you aren’t precious about possibly getting damaged in inclement weather. Perhaps encourage any children in your family to create some decorations, and varnish them to give them some protection against the rain.
Go foraging and pick up some pine cones and festive foliage to create your own natural decorations. Or even purchase some more permanent metal or plastic baubles, using twisted wire to keep them in place. Whatever you choose, your Christmas tree is sure to look fantastic.
Pavestone has hundreds of stunning videos, depicting beautifully landscaped gardens, all of which have used Pavestone landscaping and building materials to realise homeowners 'dream gardens'. This Christmas holiday period, set yourself some time to explore our videos.
Maybe make some plans for a garden makeover this Spring?
David Domoney, TV gardener, horticultural expert and Pavestone brand ambassador blogs monthly on the Pavestone website on all things landscaping related. We look forward to seeing you back again next month.
