WITH Christmas just around the corner, pine trees are popping up in every household. Sam Lyle of Pines and Needles – the biggest specialist Christmas tree retailer in London – spoke to Glass about the sustainability of the trees and his top tips on how to decorate your tree.
Pines and Needles was founded in 1995 by brothers Sam and Josh Lyle – heirs of the sugar dynasty Tate & Lyle – when they sold their first tree at the age of 13 after clearing some woodland. The brothers still source their trees in Perthshire in Scotland, and bring them down to London once the festivities commence. Their trees are famous in London with the likes of Prince Harry and Meghan and the Natural History Museum as clients at Christmas.
Sam and Josh Lyle
As we are all becoming more eco-aware, and Christmas flies in the face of this movement, what are your tips for having a more sustainable Christmas?
Firstly, we recommend buying a real tree. Real Christmas trees as they’re grown release oxygen into the atmosphere – converted from the carbon dioxide pollutants that it has absorbed – and an acre of these wonderful plants can give off enough oxygen for 16 people!
We also recommend purchasing your tree from sustainable sources, like ours. We are part of the British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association which give strict guidelines on how we grow our trees.
Sustainability really is the backbone of our business because like all farmers, our crop is key. We are always planting to replace those we cut down, with around 50,000-100,000 trees planted every year, so our work is never taking more than it should.
But also there’s something to be said for consuming less and enjoying simple pleasures like spending time with family and friends.
Outside of Pines and Needles
Are Christmas trees with roots more eco-friendly? If you live in a city and don’t have a garden, can you keep a rooted tree in a larger pot outside when it’s not Christmas? How can you keep a tree with roots happy year after year?
A lot of our customers buy trees with roots because they like the idea of a tree lasting year after year. But, like everything, you really need to look after it if you want it to survive into the next year and beyond. Planting in the ground is ideal but if you have limited space then a spacious pot is fine. Just remember though, it will need watering and feeding – extra nutrients are vital for tree health.
Which kind of tree is most environmentally friendly, and is there a way to put your old tree to good use? I read that young trees suck up a lot more carbon than old trees, so is regular tree-felling actually good for the environment? Or do the trees release all the carbon back into the atmosphere when they decompose?
It takes an average of seven years to grow a sapling into a fully grown Christmas tree. In that time it has produced huge amounts of oxygen but we don’t have data on which trees perform better than others. The key is a sustainable farm environment, which means less intensive practices, a more natural environment and lots of care and attention.
After you and your loved ones have enjoyed your tree, it can be recycled. Trees can be chipped into mulch or used for footpaths or parks – we’ve even given some of ours to London Zoo for the warthog enclosure!
It can also increasingly be used as a renewable fuel, because every tree used at Christmas is replaced with a new seedling in the spring of the next year.
A decoration on one of Pines and Needles’ Christmas tree
What are your top tips for festive decorating? Any good tricks or hacks you’ve learnt over the years?
After 20 years, we like to think we’re “dec-sperts” and have definitely learnt a thing or two along the way. My brother Josh and I have definitely found that two people are better than one when it comes to decorating so get everyone involved!
First the lights go on – starting at the bottom – and it’s great if one person can feed them to the other as they wind it round and round. We always make sure to embed the lights and then move out as you go up – it will ensure you get an even spread.
When you begin to add decorations it’s important to place your featured ones first (those tend to be the largest or most detailed) and use this as a basis to dress your tree around for the perfect style.
Sam Lyle, co-founder of Pines and Needles
That being said, we do realise that when you have children a specific style can go out of the window. Ours is now a jumble of colours and decorations because the kids just love getting involved. Interestingly, almost a third of our customers buy two trees and many of them say how they let their kids imaginations run wild on a smaller tree while they style the main one.
Charity seems to be important to Pines and Needles, which is very commendable. Do you give a certain percentage of your profits to charity? How do you reach your fundraising goals? Could you tell me a little about the charities you have supported?
Thank you. Christmas is all about giving, so we try our hardest to give back as much as we can. We’ve been inspired this year by members of our own workforce who have set up the Human-Resource Development & Language Foundation (HDLF), a Cambodia-based social enterprise working to build schools and homes in areas which have been hit by natural disasters. The guys who do this are a real inspiration to us and this year we’ve earmarked £10,000 to help them fund more work in 2019.
In previous year’s we have previously partnered with Action for Children and we have also given to various London charities where we open our Christmas pop-ups.
by Nicola Kavanagh
For more information about Pines and Needles please visit here
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