by Director of Gardens Perry Mathewes
Gardening in November
The Glen Burnie Gardens are closed to the public in November, but gardening does not stop. Actually we have been pretty busy the last two weeks. Most of the staff have been busy putting the garden to bed for the winter—pulling out annual displays, bringing in tender plants like our banana trees, lantana standards, and any other perennials that cannot survive a cold winter. Leaf collection is on ongoing process as an assortment of trees continuously drop a shower of leaves across the site. Fortunately, since we are closed, we don’t have to be in a rush to get them up right away and that creates some opportunities for some beautiful scenes for the gardeners to enjoy.
Leaves in the Garden
While most people are thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are thinking about next spring. This is the time for us to plant spring-flowering bulbs. Lots of gardening literature give generic advice about planting bulbs in the fall, some suggesting as early September. Really, the best time is do it when the weather cools but before the ground freezes. This year, we planted some in late October, but have really waited until the last week or so to get serious about getting them in the ground. We have 13,000 bulbs to plant this year. That means lots of work ahead in the next week or so, but even more beauty next spring.
Planting Tulip Bulbs
Finally we have lots of garden improvement projects going on. For one of those, we had to wait until the garden closed. That is because we are ripping out the entire brick walkway that stretches from the south lawn wall to the kitchen terrace, widening it and resetting all the brick. This will make walking through the garden much more enjoyable for groups of people. With the mild weather for the first couple of weeks this month, we have made great progress. The first section is already complete. Let’s hope we can get a lot more done before the weather gets too cold.
Brick Walk Installation
So enjoy your own gardens this winter and come see us in our spring glory next spring.
Tulip Bulbs
The Glen Burnie Gardens reopen April 1, 2016.
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