Long Grove-Kildeer Garden Club promotes land preservation
Barbara Reed Turner of Long Grove celebrates her 100th birthday on June 13, but instead of presents, it is her gift to the community that keeps on giving.
More than 40 years ago, Turner donated her family's 36 acres of woodlands, prairies and meadows to the Nature Conservancy, which eventually turned it over to the Long Grove Park District.
Up until just a few years ago, she was a site steward, actively working with volunteers to remove nonnative invasive plants and helping to conduct prescribed burns, all in an effort to restore the woodland to its native habitat.
The Reed-Turner Woodland also contains the family's original summer home, which Reed-Turner intended to donate as a nature center. As an added gift, she invited members of the Long Grove-Kildeer Garden Club, which she helped to form, to hold their meetings there.
To this day, members of the garden club continue to meet at the Reed-Turner Nature Center and their founder's vision of preservation and of promoting a love of nature — particularly flowers — continues to drive them.
These days, the club draws its members — men and women — from more than one dozen communities. Starting in September, they will gather at monthly meetings to hear a guest speaker and enjoy a potluck lunch.
Recent meetings have included presentations on wildflowers, tea gardens, or nonnative plants growing at an alarming rate along area roads.
“Members love hands-on gardening,” says club member Janet Healy of Long Grove, pointing to the hundreds of member-grown plants submitted to their plant sale earlier this month, as well as the offers to be part of their garden walks.
This year's garden walk takes place June 28 and will feature four local gardens. Guests should meet at 9 a.m. at the Reed-Turner Nature Center for information packets. The walk also includes a box lunch after the tour and serves as the club's main fundraiser.
One of the programs that sets the club apart is its free daffodil initiative. Healy points to another co-founder of the group, the late Betty Coffin — whose husband Robert Parker Coffin served as president of Long Grove — who conceived the idea.
Betty Coffin suggested that if the village supplied free daffodils to residents to plant along village roadways, it would help beautify the community and spread a love of gardening even further.
“Garden club members not only participate in the planting, they actively promote the program,” Healy adds, “recruiting residents and youth and adult groups to participate.
“Even today,” she adds, “you will see these pops of yellow flowers throughout our village.”
Healy also serves on the Long Grove Park District board of commissioners, and she says there is an overlap between park district and the garden club. For starters, the park district owns more than 400 acres of natural land and actively works to restore them.
Currently, the park district is on a mission to educate the community about the highly invasive teasel plants. When the park district looked for volunteers to root out these plants, garden club members eagerly volunteered.
“I think because our area has such a rural feel to it,” Healy said, “a lot of people are interested in gardening and getting rid of invasive plants.”
She and Penny Fulkerson, club president, believe their mission still reflects the vision of their founders, including Reed-Turner, Coffin and Beverly Bystricky: promoting hands-on gardening in the community and preserving its rural nature.
That said, club members are always recruiting new members — and you don't have to have a green thumb to join, they say. The club has gardeners of all ability levels, from seasoned gardeners to novices.
For details on joining the club, contact Fulkerson at pennysgarden@att.net.
Long Grove-Kildeer Garden Club tour of four gardens
<b>When:</b> 9 a.m. Friday, June 28
<b>Where:</b> Reed-Turner Nature Center, 3849 Old McHenry Road, Long Grove
<b>Cost:</b> $25
<b>Registration and details:</b> Contact Josephine Valino at (312) 927-4195 or jovhairstudio@gmail.com.