Glog
Still at work... (October 27, 2011)
One of the ironies of running a garden is that people think that once the Gardens close (this year on October 2), the entire staff can store their tools and take a break for the winter. In fact, the gardeners work hard throughout October to ready the gardens for the winter, protecting the banks of Page’s Brook, staking and wrapping fragile plants, and overlaying the flower beds with spruce branches to protect them for the winter. Getting a 200 acre site (and 20 buildings) ready for winter is a gargantuan task and one that we often finish just as the first flakes of snow begin to fall on the trees and envelop the grounds.
And once winter begins, the gardens require lots of other kinds of work. Like other not for profit organizations, our winters are spent fundraising, planning, canvassing for support and developing cultural and environmental programs for the next summer. We work with many partners over the course of the year, so the Fall and Winter are also moments to attend symposia and colloquia to discuss the latest trends affecting our business and to establish new programs and partnerships. We also venture forth to attend trade shows to promote the Gardens in search of new groups, new tour bus companies and a new generation of visitors.
This year we are enjoying a new challenge - developing special celebrations planned for 2012 to mark the 125th anniversary of Estevan Lodge and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the gardens to the public. So even if life in the Gardens is at a standstill, life at the Gardens remains busy right through the winter.
Alexander Reford
