Apparently Ally Pally Garden Centre sell them but beware they are suppose to be double the price than in recent years, usual excuses. Get thee sen a lump of holly and tinsel from Green Lanes and be done with it : )
There's a custom furniture place on the other side of Hornsey Station that I bought a huge one from last year on Christmas Eve for 20 pounds. Don't expect that kind of deal right now though I guess. (Am not that much of a scrooge, family were in Aus until Christmas day).
Plenty for sale up Wood Green High Street usually.
Hint for those with young children, a buggy is excellent for transporting the pine beast back to your front room.
I will be putting our two legged artificial tree up again this year much to the wifes disappointment. I said we only have another twenty six years of this one.
I'd second this. Another thing about Anthos (that's the name of the florists) xmas trees is that they don't shed their needles. Bonus! Incidentally, they're also the only florists I've ever heard of who you can phone up, order a flower delivery and they're quite happy for you to send them a cheque in the post for payment! A top community shop.
Can I please ask for ideas from Hol members? Reading this thread about buying Christmas trees locally, I thought about the related problems. What’s the best way to recycle trees? And how do we stop them being dumped?
Okay, some people will say Birdy_Two is right and we should all re-use an artificial tree. But let’s assume a lot of people do buy ‘the real thing’.
Last Christmas the Council ran a scheme for recycling old Christmas trees. There was the free green waste collection – residents were asked to remove decorations and break the tree up. People could take their trees to several parks; and to the Reuse & Recycling Centres. Lots of people did one of the three. Waste was truly turned into value locally – by composting.
Unfortunately, like many other good schemes and positive messages, Haringey Urban Environment failed to engage a significant minority of residents. People still shoved Christmas trees in their wheeled bin. A small but obvious minority left them on pavements, in alleys and elsewhere. Sad dusty dumped trees – some still with tinsel – appeared throughout January. I even spotted one at the end of April.
One obvious place to get information for a recycling scheme is from traders selling the trees. Maybe they’d agree to hand out a simple leaflet with details of the recycling arrangements? Or a small free decorative tree ornament with contact numbers and a suitable slogan. (How about: Our tree – January - back to the land; or Our tree: Not just for Christmas.)
I phoned Encams the Environmental Campaigning charity asking if they knew any local Authority with a scheme which has Christmas tree retailers as partners. They didn’t. More positively, the person I spoke to liked the idea and promised to pass it to their development team.
A phonecall to Haringey's recycling team was even more enthusiastic, bringing extra suggestions such as encouraging people to use decorations which are recyclable and/or made from sustainable and biodegradeable materials. They explained that some residents put out trees with metal and plastic decorations still wrapped round the branches – no use for composting.
It’s probably too late for a comprehensive scheme this year. Especially as it would need to cover the garden centres, local small traders, and larger stores which stock garden furniture and plants. But maybe a small local initiative in one area is possible?
So over to Hol for ideas and suggestions. Including of course, the wider Hol membership for ideas and practical experience from Germany, Canada and elsewhere round the world.
Possibly the easiest approach Alan would be for the council to leaflet all homes with the December HP mag (or leaflet stuck to recycle box after emptying by council) of a Xmas tree collection from all homes on the Sat closest to the 6th January (when many still keep their tree up till).
A refuse truck for green waste can then come around and pick up all the trees that have been put out into people's front areas (not on the street!). Using a big rubbish truck means people don't have to get a saw out to 'break the tree up'.
My suggestion for anyone with a garden out there would be to get a pair of secateurs and start snipping, Alan. Fir trees (and their shed needles) make an excellent mulch for the garden and are especially useful for camellias and the like which will appreciate their pH lowering ability.