Save Your Christmas Tree From Your Cat

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:15:25 +0000

How many years have you spent, with your cat finding your Christmas Tree irresistible? Younger cats love to play with the baubles hanging off the tree, as they are shiny and interesting things that they don’t see very often. What normally happens when your cat spots the baubles is that it will tap it and tap it, then it grabs it and pulls the bauble off the tree. The chaos then follows! If you have a large real tree, you can guarantee having an excess of pine needles covering your carpet, or if you have an artificial Christmas tree, your cat will probably have moved the lower branches causing your Christmas lights and tinsel to hang off the tree; which then causes even more of a problem by leaving the temptation of more hanging objects for your cat to pull down.

The only way to stop your cat from causing devastation around your Christmas tree is to use a deterrent. Many people will use all sorts of things to try and stop the cat from getting close to the tree, some people will put the Christmas tree in a children’s play pen (however often the cat will happily jump over this or squeeze through the bars), other people will recommend leaving citrus peel around the bottom of your tree, I don’t recommend this method as you can end up staining your floor or carpet if you are not very careful, especially as the fruits contain acid.

I have found by far the best cat deterrent for any type of Christmas tree is home made decorations. It is true that cats do not like the smell of citrus, their noses are very sensitive, and often citrus can be overpowering and they will not approach, this is why I recommend making the old fashioned orange and clove hanging tree ornaments. That way the Christmas tree will still look nicely decorated, and you’ve got a built in cat deterrent.

The ideal way to make these is to purchase large oranges (not the easy peel type), you’ll want to dry these out as much as possible. Dry them in a oven on a very low temperature, you want to evaporate the moisture in the orange rather than cooking the orange. When the orange has dried to a good degree (but not too hard), you need to push in the cloves all the way around the orange, covering as much of the skin as you can. Decide now how you are going to attach the ribbon (to hang the orange on the tree), you could put the ribbon through the orange and secure it at the bottom with a loop at the top, or you could tie the ribbon like a parcel around the orange, if you want to pass the ribbon through the orange, then make sure you make a whole now. Return the oranges to the oven on a low temperature to finish drying. Once dry, let them cool and then tie on the ribbon.

Your oranges are now ready to decorate your Christmas tree. Your house will be wonderfully fragranced with the scent of oranges and cloves, and I can guarantee your cat will avoid the Christmas tree for the entire Christmas season. If it looks like your oranges won’t last that long, then purchase some more and start the process again.

Written by Laura Marsh. For more cat information on cats and cat care visit
http://www.caringforyourcat.info

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How To Keep The Needles On A Real Christmas Tree

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:09:47 +0000

When we only had the Norway spruce Christmas tree, the end of the festive season involved trailing a half bare Christmas tree through your house dropping needles all the way. It took several hours to hoover up the mess and even still, an unprotected foot could be stabbed, well into the summer months.

With the advent on the modern, non-drop Christmas trees, especially the Nordmann Fir, this has all changed.

You can expect to remove the tree after I month with 95% of the needles attached, and even those that drop are longer and softer and less likely to cause pain later.

The advances have been made in three ways:

New tree species introductions such as the Nordmann Fir
Better breeding of these species, selecting for the needle retention trait
Better knowledge of how to care for the Christmas tree after harvest.

This article is about point 3.

When you think about the care of a cut Christmas tree you must think as if it is a cut flower.

It should be transported from forest to house as fast as physically possible. More than 2 weeks and deterioration will occur.

When the tree arrives at your house, if you are not ready to set it up you must keep it outside and preferably in a bucket of water. It is ok to keep the packaging net on at this stage.

When you are ready to take your Christmas tree in, you should cut of about 1” (25mm) from the bottom. This exposes fresher plant cells that will be more able to draw up the water.

Now comes another major modern advance. A huge range of Christmas tree stands that can contain water have been produced. These stands are a revelation, because all through the festive season your tree will absorb water. The hotter your room, the more water it will use. You should allow for 1-2 litres a day at the start. This will drop as the season progresses.

The best Christmas tree stands are an American product called Cinco. They are virtually un-breakable, are very stable and have a massive water reservoir (depending on size, from 3.75 litres up to a whopping 7.8 litres). The final cool feature, which is surprisingly useful, is that there is a drip catcher round the rim, so avoiding accidental water spills.

You should place you tree in a cool room or cool part of the room. If that is not possible (and is certainly not possible in our house) then you should try and keep the area as cool as possible. Consider turning down, or off any radiators or heaters next to the tree. You can turn your heating down or off through the night. If you have vented heating, then consider blocking any vents right beside your Christmas tree.

You can tell how happy a Nordmann Christmas tree is by looking at it. As the tree stresses out due to having run out of water or the room is too hot, the needles start to curl upwards. Because the underside of the needles has the 2 blue lines on them, the trees overall colour changes from dark green to a, not unpleasant, blue green. The more blue the tree, the less happy it is.

If you follow all this advice your real Christmas tree will be looking nearly as good when the big clear up takes place as it did when you first put it in place. You can expect very few needles to drop and even then they are easily hoovered up.

People ask me what to with the old tree. The most ecological thing is to re-use it in your own garden. Use secateurs to cut it up and use it for plant supports, mulch or even as a refuge for garden animals (as recommended by Bill Odie in his spring watch programmes). It will eventually break down to compost.

Angus Cheyne is a qualified land scientist who runs several websites. His experiences at the sharp end of industry lets him talk with “state of the art” authority. For more information on real christmas trees online visit Nordmann-christmas-trees.com Or if you want to see a quality christmas tree offering then visit TurfandStuff.com

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