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April 30 Woodland Wildflower Walk



    On Saturday April 30 at 1:30 pm Garfield Farm Museum will hold a Woodland Wildflower Walk at 1:30 pm. The walk will be held in the Garfield Harley Ephemeral Wetlands and Woods. The walk is $6 and reservations are required and can be made by contacting the museum at (630) 584-8485 or info@garfieldfarm.org. Garfield Farm Museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, IL, off of Illinois Rt. 38 on Garfield Road. Garfield Farm is a former historically intact 1840s prairie farmstead and teamster inn that is being restored as a working 1840s farm.

    The cooler temperatures of April have made for a more normal display of the first signs of spring, woodland wildflowers. Also known as ephemerals because of their rapid spring blooming and wilting and disappearing by midsummer, these plants must quickly produce seed and vegetation before the leaves of the trees grow and shade them. Some previous seasons, an early warm up caused white bloodroots to bloom by April 1 but this year they locally bloomed by the more typical April 15th.  On such a schedule, the first of May is a good time to walk the woods as this is when one might see the most different types and witness the carpet like affect the ephemerals can have. It is also a good time to become familiar with native plants as only a few species are up and growing, making it easier for the novice to learn and discover.

    The 9-acre Garfield Harley property was acquired by the museum’s Campton Historic Agricultural Lands in 2002 with the aid of a Kane County Riverboat grant, an Army Corps of Engineers grant administered by the Fox Valley Land Foundation, and donations by museum donors. It became an important nucleus for the Campton Township Open Space Program’s purchase and preservation of a surrounding 60 acres in 2007 referred to as Harley Woods.

   Garfield Farm Museum and its two nonprofit organizations, Campton Historic Agricultural Lands and Garfield Heritage Society are 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations supported by donations and volunteers. CHAL can preserve farm land, natural area and buildings and hold conservation easements throughout Illinois. GHS is responsible for the museum interpretation of Garfield Farm as an 1840s working farm and tavern museum. . Together the groups work to preserve and interpret over 374 acres and 26 structures at the two farmsteads, the Timothy Garfield Farm and Inn and the Edward Garfield/Mongerson Brothers Farm in addition to the Garfield Harley Woods.



For more information about Garfield Farm send an e-mail message to: info@garfieldfarm.org or call 630/584-8485.