REMINDER! BPDG Meeting Tuesday 9/21/2021 at 6:15 at Peck Farm Park!

Welcome back! A Batavia Plain Dirt Gardeners in person meeting will be held at Peck Farm Park on Tuesday September 21 at 6:15 pm. (Please note the time, which is earlier than our normal meeting time)

We will be touring the Butterfly House, following which we will have an important and informative business meeting in the 3-sided barn. We will be outside all evening, with shelter from wind and weather.

The Butterfly House has beautiful native and exotic non-native butterflies in its exhibit. Christina Shiel, Peck Farm Manager, has graciously offered to let us to tour that evening, after the normal closing of the house! We must wear masks while in the exhibit. Susan Jensen and Lorayne Hjersa will conduct the tour and talk about the operation of the exhibit.

Please meet outside the Butterfly House at 6:15 p.m.. It is located just off the southeast corner of the parking lot. Peck Farm Park is located at 4038 Kaneville Road, Geneva. Enter at the south parking lot, where the Museum and Butterfly House are located.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again!

For questions, please e-mail us at BataviaPlainDirtGardeners@gmail.com

Photo: Blue Morpho Butterfly (SCAP)

Hi Gardeners,

Thank you so much to Kay, Dida, Terri, Mary, Carol and Melissa for your help cleaning up weeds, big branches and clipped plants! Things are looking pretty tidy at the Wildflower Sanctuary, so our upcoming work days will not be until October 8 and 23.

The plant of the week is Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii). See if you can find them blooming near the dam.

FYI: There is one more plant sale this fall if any of you are interested in buying trees or shrubs. The Conservation Foundation’s Native Tree and Shrub Sale is open for online ordering Monday, September 20th to Friday, October 15th. Order pick-up is on Saturday, October 23rd from 8:30-11:00 am at the McDonald Farm in Naperville, IL.

Look out for the order link at www.theconservationfoundation.org

Have a good weekend!

Sarah

Welcome back! A Batavia Plain Dirt Gardeners in person meeting will be held at Peck Farm Park on Tuesday September 21 at 6:15 pm. (Please note the time, which is earlier than our normal meeting time)

We will be touring the Butterfly House, following which we will have an important and informative business meeting in the 3-sided barn. We will be outside all evening, with shelter from wind and weather.

The Butterfly House has beautiful native and exotic non-native butterflies in its exhibit. Christina Shiel, Peck Farm Manager, has graciously offered to let us to tour that evening, after the normal closing of the house! We must wear masks while in the exhibit. Susan Jensen and Lorayne Hjersa will conduct the tour and talk about the operation of the exhibit.

Please meet outside the Butterfly House at 6:15 p.m.. It is located just off the southeast corner of the parking lot. Peck Farm Park is located at 4038 Kaneville Road, Geneva. Enter at the south parking lot, where the Museum and Butterfly House are located.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again!

For questions, please e-mail us at BataviaPlainDirtGardeners@gmail.com

Photo: Blue Morpho Butterfly (SCAP)

Come Visit My Garden - Sunday Sept 19

 Linda Sonner invites you to visit her garden on Sunday, September 19, from 2 to 4 pm weather permitting (not in the rain).  Though she tells us her garden is still a work in progress, she says that sharing one’s garden with fellow gardeners is always delightful. Linda’s garden is at 1168 Pine in Batavia.

Hello Gardeners!

A big thank you goes out to Carol and Terri for their help at the last work day! They even kept working after I had to leave.

Yes! We will be having a work day starting at 8:00 on Saturday, September 11. We will have a few Liatris plants to plant in the little prairie, and then we will be moving over to the east (wooded) side to do some clean up. We need to move some big branches and clip off some perennials. The good news is that the Park District got all of the weeds in the cracks of the sidewalk, so we do not have to worry about them for a while. Please bring drinking water, gloves, eye protection, clippers, loppers, trowels and something to haul clippings if you have them.

Please save the dates of Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 23. We will take a little break before then, and then do some fall clean-up on those dates starting at 9:00. (We will start a little later than during the summer since the sun will be sleeping in.)

Hope to see you Saturday!

Sarah

Full disclosure: I took this photo at the Arboretum, not the WFS

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.