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News from Garfield Farm |
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.