to ficklejade put the tree in as big a pot as you can and keep it watered
i use a mix of sharp sand and compost with some bonemeal in the mix should survive for a few years
We always have a real tree. I shop round and this year got a 6 foot Nordmann for £10 at home bargains. I love the scent and look. We use one of the proper bases filled with water and never have an issue with needle drop
------------- Good cakes aren't cheap. Cheap cakes aren't good
Miss Baritone, you got a good buy. Here in London I paid £55 for a 7’ Nordmann Fir from some weed smoking gentlemen in a pub car park. Mostly here a 7’ tree is £70.
It did have proper tags, a few years ago the garden centre showed me how to avoid stolen trees.
Mum always moaned about the price of trees and was very scathing about my friend's parents who always bought a big one. The year my brother was born we had to make do with a branch of cedar which cost nothing.
I`m just reading Alan Bennett`s diaries and he puts his artificial tree away every year with the decorations and baubles still on it, and just brings it back out the next year. I don`t think my wife would let me get away with that.
Quote: Originally posted by badger54 on 11/12/2018
I`m just reading Alan Bennett`s diaries and he puts his artificial tree away every year with the decorations and baubles still on it, and just brings it back out the next year. I don`t think my wife would let me get away with that.
That's an excellent idea. I will have to see if I can squeeze ours through the hatch in the attic
Quote: Originally posted by Mike3003 on 11/12/2018
I am tying a handful of Pheasant tail feathers together and sticking them in an old egg box........Bahhh Humbug, 😡😡
Don't the pheasants mind? I guess you will be having stuffed pheasant for Christmas dinner followed by pheasant sandwiches on Boxing Day then.
Quote: Originally posted by Mike3003 on 11/12/2018
I am tying a handful of Pheasant tail feathers together and sticking them in an old egg box........Bahhh Humbug, 😡😡
Don't the pheasants mind? I guess you will be having stuffed pheasant for Christmas dinner followed by pheasant sandwiches on Boxing Day then.
We have an 8 ft real tree, grown locally in Ayrshire (minimum transport miles for us) and cut within a week of sale; we put it in water & it's fresh so it doesn't drop any needles until it's taken down at Epiphany. While it was growing for 10 years (I've counted the whorls of branches, one whorl per year) it was capturing carbon, which we all know is a Good Thing. In January, our Council will collect it from the kerbside, shred it and turn it into compost that we can collect for free for our gardens.
A pot-planted Christmas tree may eventually turn into a Bonsai, but it'll have great character: there won't be another one like it!
Plastic trees now mostly come from China by cargo ship - that's a lot of diesel miles (plus the cardboard boxes). It's been really heartening to read that most folk on UKCS re-use their plastic tree over & over, because plastic trees can't be re-cycled. All plastic trees end up in landfill.
Quote: Originally posted by DeborahTurner on 10/12/2018
A retro gem, Bob.
Miss Baritone, you got a good buy. Here in London I paid £55 for a 7’ Nordmann Fir from some weed smoking gentlemen in a pub car park. Mostly here a 7’ tree is £70.
It did have proper tags, a few years ago the garden centre showed me how to avoid stolen trees.
When the police turn up, try telling them you bought it from a man in a pub
I have a 6ft artificial bought for £10 in the sales over a decade ago, we don't have room for it at the moment so last Christmas while picking up some last minute supplies I got another reduced tree, this time a 2' pot grown one for £2.50, it's about a foot taller this year (and some of the lowest branches are a bit chicken nibbled) but should do us a year or two more.
When we were kids Dad would cut a 7ft branch out of one of the large Holly trees in our garden, know idea when this tradition started but it always looked great!