What fun! Gardeners, we’re all invited!

Farm Stroll 2021 Offers Tours of 12 Small Family-Owned Farms

Woodstock, Ill. – Come out for a day in the country! On Sunday, Sept. 26, McHenry County will host its annual Farm Stroll, a self-guided tour of the county’s diversified family farms. A total of 12 farms will be part of this educational agriculture-centric tour. Fruit and vegetable growers, dairy cows, beef cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, horses, honey bees, perennial plants and more will be featured within these 12 farms.

Because this is a family-friendly, free, self-guided tour, there is no beginning or end of the tour—just choose the farms that interest you and visit during the designated time.

The Farm Stroll is organized by the McHenry County Farm Bureau and University of Illinois Extension McHenry County Master Gardeners. Extension Master Gardener and 4-H volunteers will be onsite to assist farm families in accommodating guests and conducting demonstrations and tours.

There is no charge for the Farm Stroll, but most farms will be selling food, produce or other farm-related products. Bring cash to purchase items directly from the farmers.

Remember, these are working farms: dress appropriately and supervise children at all times. No pets, please. A few farms will have toilet facilities, but several do not.

Visit McHenry County Farm Bureau for more info at mchenrycfb.org or at facebook.com/McHenryCountyFarmBureau or call 815-338-1520. Also visit University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners at web.extension.illinois.edu/lm or facebook.com/McHenryCoMasterGardener.

Thank you so much to Lorayne! Today we gave the Cress Creek Garden Club a tour of the WFS. It was hot, but the gardeners from Naperville seemed to enjoy their visit. It definitely helped to divide the group in half so that everyone could see and hear, and Lorayne made that possible.

Yes, we will have a work day on Saturday starting at 8:00. We will start in the Little Prairie for just a short time getting some invasives that have popped up. Then we will head to the shade, and work on clearing paths on the east side. Please bring gardening gloves, eye protection, clippers, loppers, weed diggers and drinking water. Windmill City Fest doesn't really get going until noon, so hopefully parking will not be an issue.

Please save the date: Our next work day will be Saturday, September 11th. By then we will have some plants from the Wild Ones Sale that need to be planted.

Hope to see you then!

Sarah

This guy (or gal) entertained the Cress Creek Garden Club this am

Can you find the Cardinal Flowers at the WFS? The hummingbirds have.

The weather has been beautiful lately, so it is a great time to take a stroll through the Batavia Wildflower Sanctuary. See if you can find the cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis), great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica, photo #1) and obedient plants (Physostega virginiana, photo #2).

Thank you so much to Terri for your help on Friday! A lot of weeds met their match.

Fall is a great time to plant, and the Wild Ones of Greater Kane County is having one more native plant sale. Their trees, shrubs and perennials need to be preordered by August 18. See https://startinyouryard.com/ for details and to order. You can split an order with a friend if you don't want 8 plants of all the same kind.

Our next work day at the Wildflower Sanctuary will be on Saturday, August 28 starting at 8:00 am. Stay tuned for details when it gets closer, but if you would like to get extra credit and do some work on your own, we could really use some help pulling weeds between the cracks of the brick pavers and cutting back plants that are hanging over the sidewalk.

Thanks for your help!

Sarah

Hello Gardeners,

This is just a friendly reminder that we will be having a work day on Friday starting at 8:00. Please bring gardening gloves, eye protection, drinking water, clippers, loppers, weed diggers, and a bucket or tarp for toting the clippings and weeds.

The yellow flowers in the picture below are called golden glow or cutleaf coneflower or Rudbeckia laciniata. They are pretty, but need to be trimmed back so that people can get by on the Riverwalk. We also have some weeds to pull near the dam, and I am counting on the soil being nice and soft after this week's rain.

The second picture is of cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) that happily have started blooming along the west part of the boardwalk.

Hope to see you on Friday the 13th!

Sarah

Thank you, Nancy H., for finding and sharing this excellent info on Hosta Viruses – especially on Hosta Virus X. Gardeners, be aware that this virus can decimate your hostas, it needs to be addressed - agressively - as soon as you see it. Care must be taken so that it isn’t spread to other hostas.

https://www.delvalhosta.org/hvx?fbclid=IwAR1vhraIEf4M4mSXTEsGz7lxOxCPPPZkl8yK6xd7x_6VQ3onFUreQ7ezaW0

Dear Gardeners,

Thank you so much to Terri and Charlie for your help on July 24th! Lots of weeds met their demise that day.

This is a beautiful time of year to check out our Little Prairie, and the geese and red-winged blackbirds are no longer guarding their little ones, so come take a stroll at the Riverwalk!

Please save the dates for work days on August 13 and 28, starting at 8:00. I will send more details when they get closer. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the summer!

Sarah