Don't Toss That Tree! 7 Clever Ways to Use Your Christmas Tree After the Holidays to Benefit Your Garden and Local Wildlife

Christmas tree disposal hits the same way every year. January rolls in, the ornaments are boxed, and that once-beautiful tree is suddenly a dry, pokey mess shedding needles everywhere. But hold off hauling your tree to the street just yet. Those branches, trunk, and needles can still pull their weight around the yard for months.

Figuring out how to recycle a Christmas tree without wasting it is easy, if you're willing to get creative. Good Christmas tree care in December will keep your tree greener longer. So once it’s done for the year, you’ll still be able to make use of it.

If you are wondering what to do with a Christmas tree once the holidays are over, it turns out there are plenty of things to do – and they can be kind of fun. So pull out the loppers, rope in whoever’s around to help, and by lunchtime you’ll have fantastic raw materials you can use in your garden or give to local wildlife. No curb pile, no pickup fee – just garden gold from something that was about to be trash.

Benefit Wildlife With Faded Boughs

Dead and dying Christmas trees are wonderful resources for wildlife if you move them outside into your yard after the holidays are over. Here are some of the best ways to use a Christmas tree to benefit furry or feathered friends in your garden.

1. Build a Brush Pile

Just drag the whole tree – or the biggest pieces you can manage – to a quiet corner of your yard and let it flop into a loose heap to create a simple brush pile that benefits local wildlife.

Rabbits might show up first, then every songbird in the neighborhood. Come July, your tree will be alive with beneficial insects and the wrens and bluebirds will treat it like an all-day buffet.

Give it a flip every spring so it rots slow and stays useful. Throw on any storm-downed limbs you’ve got lying around – critters don’t care if it’s a matching set of wood.

2. Create a Bird Feeder Station

Cut the trunk of your Christmas tree into 3-4 feet (0.9-1.2 m) sections and stand them up like a little forest. Stick suet blocks, like this from Amazon, or peanut-butter pinecones on the branches and hang orange halves off the tips.

The leftover needles make a perfect windbreak to protect tender plants and provide winter shelter for birds. They can safely hide inside even when it’s blowing snow in the dead of winter. Stick a shallow pie tin of water on top during hard freezes. Birds will drink up like it’s happy hour.

Turn Trees Into Garden Gold

Christmas trees are also fantastic fodder for your garden. There are so many ways to use faded tannenbaums outdoors to benefit plants and soil. Here are some of my favorite ideas to try:

3. Make Needle Mulch

Give your dried out tree a good shake – needles practically jump off when it’s past its prime. Pile needles about 2-3 inches (5-7.5 cm) deep around blueberries, azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, and hydrangeas – any plants that like acidic soil. They smother weeds, hold in moisture, and break down so slowly you only reapply every couple years.

Have a shredder? Toss the twiggy bits through for a finer mulch that looks more appealing and vanishes quicker. Give your plants a boost with coffee grounds in the spring and they will go nuts.

4. Insulate Perennials

Place whole boughs over strawberries, garlic, or anything tender in your garden. The branches act like a big pine blanket. Snow piles up on top for further insulation and air can still sneak through so plants won't get soggy and rot.

The faint Christmas tree smell can also hang around the beds until April – a bonus cat repellent for the garden. When the weather finally breaks, rake what’s left straight onto the compost heap.

5. Build a Garden Bed Border

Saw the trunk of your dead Christmas tree into 12-18-inch (30-46 cm) chunks and create a border around raised beds or line walkways with the logs. Wet climates make quick work of the old wood in around 2-3 years, feeding the soil the whole time. While drier spots and areas with a little elevation, let them hang around for around 8-10 years.

Drill holes, stuff them with mushroom spawn plugs, like these ones from Amazon, and harvest oyster mushrooms next fall. Logs also stop grass creeping in and give slugs somewhere to hide that isn’t your lettuce.

6. Use Branches as Garden Stakes

Hack straight branches to 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 m) in length, then use the pieces to support tall and vining plants. Cut the bottoms of the branches into sharp points with a hatchet, bundle the spares, and you’re set for vegetable trellises come spring.

Tomatoes, peppers, dahlias, and sunflowers love them as well. Plus, the wood is tough enough to last for two growing seasons. A quick coat of linseed oil, which you can pick up on Amazon, and they’ll easily last a third year.

7. Stock Up on Kindling

Split the trunk of your faded tree into skinny strips to use as kindling in your backyard fire pit. Dry pine lights easily and smells like Christmas morning.

A kindling splitter, like this from Amazon, turns this task from an annoying chore to a fun 5-minute job. Throw in the orange peels from your holiday baking for an extra delicious-smelling citrus pop when the flames catch.