BOOTHBAY, Maine — This year, Gardens Aglow welcomed more than 200,000 visitors to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
It's estimated the economic impact on Maine is $50 million. That's according to Kris Folsom, director of marketing at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
And behind all of that comes a lot of decorating effort.
It takes months to get the more than 600,000 lights up through 14 acres of cultivated gardens. Sometimes it takes even longer to take them down.
That's due to weather and the need for a little extra care.
"We also try to be very careful about not damaging our trees and our shrubs because we are a botanical garden and we want it to look lovely during our regular season which starts April 15," Alison Webb, a horticulturist at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens said.
Each year only about 5% of the lights need to be replaced due to damage from the weather and in some cases, squirrels.
"There's nothing I love more than seeing people come out of the visitors center at the end of Gardens Aglow and say 'oh my that was just beautiful,'" Webb said.
The pack-up process is pretty involved. Each strand of lights is tested and each bulb is inspected before they are folded neatly and stored in plastic tubs. The team said the more care they taking putting the lights away, the easier it will be for them when they start decorating for next year's event in September.