Eco-Friendly Solution for Christmas Trees

Those who have a Christmas fir in their Florence homes now have the option, starting January 6, of entrusting their tree for a year to a park in Scandicci where gardeners will take care of it until the next holiday season.

Poggio Valicaia is a green space spread out over 48 hectares (118 acres) in the Florence suburb.  The gardeners will plant any Christmas tree with roots outside and tend it for the owner at the nominal cost of €10 until December when the original owner can reclaim it, take it home and decorate the fir once again.  Sickly trees will find a temporary home in a greenhouse.  If no one goes back to pick up a tree over a two-year period, it will automatically become the property of the park.

People who are interested must name the tree and write it on a tag, then send a private message by accessing the Poggio Valicaia Facebook page with its name, the owner’s name and cell phone to arrange drop-off.  When that day arrives, part of the deal is that the owner leaves the tree at the park entrance, take a photo to post on social media with the hashtag #NomoreSPELACCHIO (Spelacchio was the nickname give to Rome’s 2017 official Christmas tree, which was fairly bare, having dropped many of its needles prior to arrival and during its time in a city square) and tagging the Poggio Valicaia Facebook page, which will be reporting on the growth of each of the park’s guests.

The tree-sitters are members of two cooperatives, Giglio del Campo and Vivai fiorentini Valle Verde, who, thanks to the initiative, are taking a stand against plastic trees to offer an alternative which also provides oxygen to the environment.  The trees, and the park in general, can be visited starting on March 23, when it reopens for the season.

To read more in Italian, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.