ACADEMY

With sustainability high in everyone’s minds this autumn/winter, you can help keep the green spirit flourishing this Christmas with a living Christmas tree that will last for years to come with the right care and attention.

Christmas trees need plenty of water to keep them in tip top condition and prevent their needles falling, which means that choosing the right planter is essential. The experts at LECHUZA have just the right solution with this large, wicker-style self-watering planter, which not only looks fabulous indoors but will easily withstand the elements when you need to move your Christmas tree outside after Twelfth Night.

As well as keeping them away from radiators and placing in a room that is as cool as possible, you should bring a live tree indoors as late as possible – the weekend before Christmas is ideal – and put it back outdoors promptly when festivities are over.

Instead of being used once then discarded in landfill or burned, a small to medium sized pot-grown Christmas tree will happily thrive outdoors until you are ready to bring it in again for redecoration in future festive seasons. Rather than planting them in the garden – where they can grow to enormous heights in a short space of time – by keeping your tree in a suitable planter you can control its size and enjoy it for many Christmases to come.

According to the Carbon Trust, a natural two-metre Christmas tree that does not have roots and is disposed of into a landfill has a carbon footprint of around 16kg of CO2, so by reusing your Christmas tree for a number of years you can significantly reduce this carbon footprint. Any living tree has a significantly lower carbon cost than an artificial tree made of plastic, which has a CO2 footprint of around 40kg.

Environmental organisation, Friends of the Earth, also recommends pot-grown trees for a more eco-conscious Christmas celebration. A real pine or fir tree is naturally able to absorb CO2 and release oxygen, so by keeping yours alive beyond Christmas you are playing a small part in keeping the atmosphere around you fresh and healthy. You should ideally source one from a local producer to limit the CO2 footprint associated with transporting trees over large distances, so remember to ask your supplier where the trees come from and choose one that’s been grown as close to you as possible, at least within the UK.

Not just suitable for private home, a pot grown tree will also look fabulous in an office environment or in a hospitality setting, where LECHUZA’s clean and elegant planter will by a stylish and fuss-free feature that can be maintained with ease.

Featured planters: CUBICO.