Debra Lynn Dadd : : About Holiday Trees...Make Your Own Recycled Tree

Debra Lynn Dadd

Holiday Trees...Make Your Own Recycled Tree

You can make a small tabletop tree from miscellaneous evergreen branches--trimmed from your garden trees, fallen branches found after a storm, trimmings from holiday trees, or purchased from nurseries or florist shops. I've always been able to get free trimmings to make wreaths from Christmas tree lots, who are happy to have me haul them away.

If you have trees in your garden, use trimmings from whatever species you have --even if they aren't the traditional pine, spruce, or fir, they are the evergreens of your place, which is what everyone used for the many millennia before we had commercial Christmas tree lots.

To make the tree:

Soak two bricks of florist foam in water for 30 minutes or more.
Insert a plastic pot liner or plastic garbage bag into a decorative 8-inch pot.
Trim the florist foam with a knife to fit into the pot. Place it in the pot and cover it with sphagnum moss.
Insert a wooden dowel into the center of the foam, about 6 inches.
Place one branch next to the dowel, insert it into the foam, and wire it to the dowel.
Continue to add branches, wiring each one in place, until you have the tree you desire.
Decorate with red berries, small ornaments, ribbons, and lights.
Check the florist foam every few days and add water as needed to keep it moist.
At the end of the season, recycle the greens and save the pot, liner, and dowel for making another tree next year.

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