Christmas greenery: is yours real or fake?

[Anonymous]

Real tree but I’m switching to fake next year the prices were ridiculous for a decent height tree this year. I’m not doing it again. I’ll buy real wreaths as long as they are under 30 bucks.

[Anonymous]

My real stuff is drying out. I misted with water as the directions said and that’s not helping.

I have two wreath-like centerpieces and a bigger wreath for the door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fake everything. More sustainable across the masses.

That’s not true. Artificial trees are economical and easy, but not more environmentally friendly. Google it and you’ll come up with dozens of sources disproving the claim.

[Anonymous]

^^ your claim

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real trees, real wreaths, real garland. Easy clean-up to compost pile. Minimal storage needs.

OP here - Would you mind sharing where you get your wreaths and garlands that you can easily compost? Everywhere I’ve tried, everything is completely ensnared in miles and miles of sharp, stiff, tangled wire that’s impossible to separate out. I would love to be able to compost but short of making everything myself, I don’t see how it’s possible. Thanks so much!

DP but what I do is have a sharp pair of secateurs and what you want to do is focus on cutting stuff off/out of the wire rather than changing the wire at all. There will still be a lot of plant material in the wire when you’re done but that’s okay, just throw it away. This is for garland, wreaths I just throw away.

In the grand scheme of things the plants have already been cut and it doesn’t really matter if they compost in a compost pile or in the landfill. I mostly do it to keep the trash volume manageable.

[Anonymous]

I usually find the cheapest, real, formed greenery around and then supplement them with my own things (replace the bow); I make some in the years I have time (we have a lot of useful shrubs to prune for this); and I have one preserved boxwood piece.

Then we chip it all into mulch (though it is a pain to remove everything from the forms). Sometimes I put the wreath forms under a shrub and let it decompose for a year and act as an acidic mulch, then it is easier to clean out the form.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real trees, real wreaths, real garland. Easy clean-up to compost pile. Minimal storage needs.

OP here - Would you mind sharing where you get your wreaths and garlands that you can easily compost? Everywhere I’ve tried, everything is completely ensnared in miles and miles of sharp, stiff, tangled wire that’s impossible to separate out. I would love to be able to compost but short of making everything myself, I don’t see how it’s possible. Thanks so much!

DP but what I do is have a sharp pair of secateurs and what you want to do is focus on cutting stuff off/out of the wire rather than changing the wire at all. There will still be a lot of plant material in the wire when you’re done but that’s okay, just throw it away. This is for garland, wreaths I just throw away.

In the grand scheme of things the plants have already been cut and it doesn’t really matter if they compost in a compost pile or in the landfill. I mostly do it to keep the trash volume manageable.

Jut FYI, plant material does not compost in a landfill because it gets buried and thus decomposes using anaerobic processes. Biodegradation occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and produces landfill gas -- mostly methane and some carbon dioxide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real trees, real wreaths, real garland. Easy clean-up to compost pile. Minimal storage needs.

OP here - Would you mind sharing where you get your wreaths and garlands that you can easily compost? Everywhere I’ve tried, everything is completely ensnared in miles and miles of sharp, stiff, tangled wire that’s impossible to separate out. I would love to be able to compost but short of making everything myself, I don’t see how it’s possible. Thanks so much!

DP but what I do is have a sharp pair of secateurs and what you want to do is focus on cutting stuff off/out of the wire rather than changing the wire at all. There will still be a lot of plant material in the wire when you’re done but that’s okay, just throw it away. This is for garland, wreaths I just throw away.

In the grand scheme of things the plants have already been cut and it doesn’t really matter if they compost in a compost pile or in the landfill. I mostly do it to keep the trash volume manageable.

Jut FYI, plant material does not compost in a landfill because it gets buried and thus decomposes using anaerobic processes. Biodegradation occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and produces landfill gas -- mostly methane and some carbon dioxide.

Oh, well. As I said I do the best I can to separate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My real stuff is drying out. I misted with water as the directions said and that’s not helping.

I have two wreath-like centerpieces and a bigger wreath for the door.

Real garland or wreaths inside are not going to last for more than a week or so. Outside they’ll do better. But if you want stuff up for a month, doing fake inside is probably better.

[Anonymous]

Real tree, real wreath on front door, fake garland on mantel, fake prelit trees in outdoor planters.

[Anonymous]

Real tree, real evergreen wreath on front door. Fake boxwood wreaths on the windows outside.

I bought some preserved real boxwood garland and wreaths for inside a number of years ago. It’s not cheap, but looks great and has lasted for about 8 years so far. Sheds a little when I hang it up, but not really after that.

[Anonymous]

Buy a real tree and wreath each year, but we have fake greenery swag with twinkle lights that we wrap around our stair hand rails. That's for convenience (pre-lit!) and because having guest have to hang on to actual boughs if it's slippery or snowing would mean that tarry sap would get on their hands, our doorknob, etc.

[Anonymous]

Fake everything, I'm smell sensitive and even some fake stuff had to be nixed for smelling.