Recycle Your Christmas Trees

6 Ways to Recycle Your Christmas Tree
By Vanessa Richins Myers


1. Find Your Local Recycling Center

Photo © Flickr user 0ccam
Many cities now have recycling services that will pick up your Christmas tree or provide drop-off locations. The tree may be used by local organizations for the other ways suggested here. You can find a location near you by checking Earth911's database.

2. Make Your Own Mulch

Photo © [Natural Resources Conservation Service, Missouri]
If you have access to a wood chipper, you can make your own garden mulch. Use a saw to cut the Christmas tree into smaller pieces to fit into the chipper. The wood chips can be used around your plants, in your compostbin, and for garden paths.

3. Provide a Bird Habitat

Photo © Flickr user audreyjm529
If you have the room in your backyard, Christmas trees make excellent bird habitats. Remove all of the decorations. Make sure there is no tinsel or flocking.

You will need to secure the tree by using the stand or stakes and twine. Provide the birds with food by making pine cone bird feeders, using suet holders, and hanging strings of popcorn or fresh fruit.

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Monster Tree Service Featured on Investors.com

Monster Tree Service has been featured on Investors.com titled, Top Entrepreneurs Follow Inspiration With Execution. The article discusses how Josh began Monster Tree Service, what spurred the idea, and why he is franchising. To read the full article click here or continue reading below.

A mix of the creative and the sensible builds strong businesses. How entrepreneurs put sturdy legs under cool ideas:

• Show spirit. Wine should be a feel-good product. That was the vision Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey had for Barefoot Cellars.

In "The Barefoot Spirit," the pair write about the distance they traveled between launching from a laundry room in 1986 and being purchased by E.&J. Gallo Winery nine years later.

Charitable organizations gave the grape smashers an early lift. Barefoot's founders donated bottles to nonprofits they believed in, worked at their events and talked about the causes — and their wine.

Supporters became patrons.

"One of the reasons we wrote the book is to show American businesses that worthy cause marketing really works and can actually be more effective than advertising," Houlihan told IBD.

• Keep them juiced. Barefoot's top salespeople sometimes earned more than the co-founders.

Harvey says the pay-for-performance approach attracted go-getters rather than clock punchers.

"You are paying too much for labor when you pay for attendance alone," he said. "It's their production you really want, because that is where your profits come from."

• Follow the vine. Harvey tells business owners to create a graphic of the money trail — going backward from the customer's wallet through marketing, distribution and production.

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How Professional Tree Services Can Help With The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

The article, Save Damaged Trees and Your Limbs, Too, that was published in the Home and Garden section of the New York Times talks about how homeowners should look into professional tree services to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. To read the full article see below or click here.

Save Damaged Trees and Your Limbs, Too

By: BOB TEDESCHI

I’ve done a lot of dumb things to shave a few dollars off the yard-maintenance budget, but I set a personal stupidity record six years ago when I strolled into my backyard with a borrowed chain saw and not a shred of safety gear or training.

I emerged intact, but only after nearly sawing into my thigh, risking my eyesight with flying wood chips and escaping a few other situations that I only now recognize as perilous.

So in approaching the splintered mess that Hurricane Sandy left in my yard, I vowed to be a little smarter. I sought advice from arborists, tree-removal experts and a chain-saw maven who helped me understand which damaged trees I should — and shouldn’t — cut, which ones I might save and how to identify the trees that might fall at the hands of Andrea, Barry, Chantal or any of next year’s storms.

The good news is that most reputable tree services will offer free evaluations and estimates, so it makes little sense to attempt a potentially hazardous tree removal before finding out how much it would cost to have it done professionally. And even if you have no fallen trees, these services will frequently help identify potential problems and offer tips on how to keep more of your trees upright longer.

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