Monumental Tasks Await!

While our successful and much enjoyed 2016 Holiday Light Show (HLS) is officially over, we still have some rental opportunities that will use the show to some degree or another.  The photo above was taken last week when we took down some perimeter lights in advance of the cold weather.  We’re poised to start significant take down of the HLS next week which is a very organized approach that considers how we collect, organize, test. process and pack away everything for the show.  Mother Nature is a huge factor as you can imagine and with a bigger show than ever, this will be a significant endeavor to be sure.  Many grounds staff members and volunteers will be part of this process which will result in hundreds of carts filled as you see above!  My focus is on seed ordering right now with just some of my catalog stacks seen directly below…awaiting exploration.  I absolutely love going through catalogs and the “kid in a candy store” analogy is always appropriate when I start this process.  As much as I feel guilty (not really) about being inside with catalogs (yay!), the HLS processing is always handled well.

We had a nice turnout of volunteers today.  Larry H. and Larry O. were working on various HLS tasks and projects in the Horticulture Center with Larry H. heading out in the gardens for some work as well.  Our volunteers (Jim, Dave, Ron Y., Ron P., Vern, Marv, Bobby K., Del, Gary S., Maury, Dr. Gredler, Dick H., Bill O. and Peg L.) all had indoor projects which includes carpentry projects, tidying, organizing and plant record updates (Peg).  It was a very productive day and thankfully a heat wave has moved in as the recent “arctic tundra” temperatures have moved along…

the Heirloom Garden will be back in 2017 with more exciting plants (see labels above)

my system above includes entering seed packets as they arrive….above are all trial plants