Get outdoors and explore! Algonquin Garden Club takes field trip to Spring Valley Nature Center, Volkening Heritage Farm

As part of celebrating the 200th anniversary of Illinois, the Algonquin Garden Club wants to remind you to get outdoors and explore the fantastic places that Illinois has to offer.

On Tuesday, April 17, the Algonquin Garden Club visited Spring Valley Nature Center for a lecture on composting and a tour of the Volkening Heritage Farm in Schaumburg.

Spring Valley is a refuge of 135 acres of fields, forests, marshes and streams. Spring Valley also features over three miles of handicapped-accessible hiking trails, a nature center with natural history displays and information, and an 1880s living history farm. The Volkening Heritage Farm offers a step back into the past for a look at Schaumburg as it was in the 1880s - a rural German farm community. Authentically dressed interpreters at Heritage Farm welcome and share activities with visitors throughout the site.

The lecture on composting was given by David Brooks, manager of Spring Valley Nature Center. Garden club attendees included: Shelley Haiges, Erika Priester, Carol Weinhammer, Cathy Zange, Sillive Leung, Tina Black, Catherine Dugan, Nancy Goebbert, Gail Hamilton, Janice Hanson, Becky Lampe, Janice Slonke, Carol Roby, Sharon Lake Karen Boduch and Alison Anderson.

The garden club invites the community to its annual Spring Plant Sale from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 12, at a new location, 1140 E. Algonquin Road, by Diamond Physical Therapy.

It will feature hundreds of plants, including perennials dug from members' yards, hanging baskets, geraniums, and tomatoes, just in time for Mother's Day. The proceeds of this sale are used for local student scholarships and for the beautification and maintenance of gardens in Algonquin. Visit algonquingardenclub.org or follow the club's Facebook page.

The club meets once a month at a member's home.