Miracle-Gro For Christmas Trees

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Put the spruce shoot, or douglas fir, in a blender with 750ml tequila and blend until the liquid turns a nice light green. Pass the liquid through a cloth or muslin to remove any hard bits of tree. Drop your tree off at a recycling centre where it can be turned into chippings for paths or turned into soil This is an area where it is possible to economise and still get great results, with handmade decorations and charity shop finds cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Once you’ve selected your live tree, you’ll need to take care of it immediately to keep it alive. Tchukki Andersen, a staff arborist for the Tree Care Industry Association, suggests wrapping it in a plastic tarp to protect it on the journey home. If you bought a pre-cut tree, when you get it home, use a handsaw or chainsaw to make a fresh cut to remove about an inch or so of wood from the bottom of the trunk.

At Christmas time, many of us get carried away, with cheese, biscuits, chocolate, alcohol and vegetables the foods people often buy too much of. If you are broke but still hosting this year, why not discuss sharing the shopping costs or ask guests to contribute something to the meal. Local authorities often arrange drop-off points or special collections of trees in early January and advertise the dates this will take place Look for an organisation or charity that offers a ‘treecyling’ service where it could be used to build effective flood barriers in communities around the UK If, however, you have an artificial tree, then make sure to look at ways of keeping them for future Christmases so they don’t end up in landfill where they can take centuries to decompose. Where you choose to shop is not always about price, and stores such as Waitrose pride themselves on their ethical and taste credentials, which are harder to compare. However, this year more than most, it may be the overriding factor.This is the most important step for keeping a Christmas tree alive. The very best way to ensure your tree is fresh is to cut your own from a local tree farm. “A cut-your-own tree guarantees freshness, and by going to a local farm, you know it’s going to be sustainable, so trees will be replanted, and it’ll be a selective harvest,” says Mark Derowitsch, a spokesman for the Arbor Day Foundation. While some keen Christmas-lovers may have hung up the decorations already, most households wait until December before putting up the tree, meaning this is the weekend many families will be heading to the garden centre, and hunting for baubles and fairy lights in the loft.

Let your children make paper chains. These are inexpensive to buy, and as a bonus keep them entertained for a while. When mine were little, they also enjoyed making snowmen from old toilet roll tubes and cotton wool, so let them loose with a few Christmas craft supplies.” Blend the salt, sugar and spruce tips in a blender until the spruce is chopped up and mixed nicely with the salt and sugar. Pour half the mixture into a bowl or bag. Add the salmon fillets and pour the rest of the spruce mix on top and turn the fish to ensure it is coated with the mixture.Jane Berry, who runs the Shoestring Cottage money-saving blog, suggests heading to charity shops and getting creative yourself. “You will find a good selection of secondhand decorations in charity shops,” she says. “They bring them out about now and they tend to be very cheap.” If you’re one of the nearly 30 million households who will be getting a live Christmas tree this year, it’s important to keep the tree fresh throughout the entire holiday season. A fresh tree not only smells nicer than a dry, brittle tree, but it’ll also drop fewer needles, remain greener longer, and pose much less of a fire hazard. Rub the squeezed lime around the rim of the glass and sprinkle with salt, or put salt on a plate and put the glass into it rim side down. The underside of the needle will have two white strips with a green line at the centre and when crushed will have a strong smell of resin or citrus.