Garfield Farm Museum to offer a Wildflower Walk Saturday
At 9 a.m. Saturday, April 29, Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills will hold a Wildflower Walk, including the Garfield Harley Pond and Woods. With the early onset of spring, the bloom should be at its peak.
Depending on what is blooming will determine time spent at Garfield Harley Pond and the museum's Mill Creek Prairie and Savanna. Participants will caravan to the woods, a mile from the museum and then return to Garfield to look at other key flowering areas.
Woodland plants must take advantage of the still bare trees as once the tress leaf out, less sun hits the woodland floor. These plants know as ephemerals they must quickly bloom and set seed before their source of energy, the sun, is blocked by leafy boughs overhead.
Red and white trilliums, yellow bellwort, trout lilies, rue and wood anemones, toothwort, swamp buttercups are just some of the spring plants that have begun to bloom and the false Solomon seals, Jacob's ladder, blue-eyed grass, and marsh marigolds may be on view as well.
Jerome Johnson, museum biologist and lifelong native of the area, will lead the walk through the properties.
Binoculars are welcome to spot any migrant warblers or shore birds. Participants should wear appropriate clothing for walking through briars and wet soils. Insect repellent is encouraged to discourage biting insects.
To understand the history of the region, one must understand the environment produced some of the most fertile soils in the world, drawing settlers from the east. As a historically intact former Illinois 1840s farmstead, Garfield Farm Museum offers a chance to discover what life was like during early settlement of northern Illinois.
The walk is $6 or $3 for children under age 13.
It will be a three-hour hike but after returning from Harley Woods, hikers may leave and the hike at Garfield Farm will resume.
Garfield Farm Museum is at 3N016 Garfield Road, off Route 38, five miles west of Geneva.
Reservations are appreciated so as not to overbook the walk, by calling 630 584-8485 or email info@garfieldfarm.org.