All About Earth Day At Lake Katherine

Mother Nature did her best in providing perfect spring weather for the Earth Day celebration at , on Saturday.

The celebration at Lake Katherine has been held for around 15 years. Gareth Blakesley, Lake Katherine’s operations manager, said the day was originally tied more to Arbor Day, but Earth Day makes the event more encompassing.

“It's a great way to promote some of the green vendors and to get people out to the lake,” Blakesley said. “We've had a great day, a little windy, but the first real nice day this week.”

The event had some fun things for the kids, with hay rides, dog agility demonstrations, fly ball and crafts.

But the heart of the event was to give both novice and professionals tips on gardening and introduce people to products for energy-saving.

For the new green thumb, there were a couple of opportunities to bring home some new additions for the back yard.

The University of Illinois Extension's Master Gardner program was on hand giving away dug woods and service berries with planting and care instructions.

Every guest was permitted to take home one plant and master gardener Marianne Reiner said the gardeners also provided information for their program, which helps home owners with their plant questions.

“If residents have a plant that looks that sick, they can bring it to us, call us or e-mail us a photo and we can tell them what should be done,” she said.

For those looking to spruce up the garden with perennials, a couple of associations were hand with lilies, dahlias and irises.

Diana Anskakov was on hand to promote the Northern Illinois Iris Society and share some irises dug from her garden, hoping to inspire others to find her passion for the plant.

“My grandma gave me some flowers when I was younger and irises were always my favorite,” said Anskakov. “My dad thought it was kind of a waste of time and couldn't go as wild as wanted, he said when I got my house I could do whatever I wanted – now I have 550 iris varieties.”

The master gardeners also provided some tips on recycling, such as turning old calendars into colorful envelopes, collecting rain water and trying to avoid disposable plastic goods.

The Illinois Mycological Association had a few vendor tables and offered help on identifying different local mushroom varieties.

Andy Wilson, president of the association said that mushrooms are a great cuisine addition, but you need to know what you're doing before eating any wild ones.

“Most mushrooms are not poisonous, and toxicity varies, but we always say, 'any doubt, throw it out,'” Wilson said.

Many residents came out and checked out the various vendors and took home goodies, but also stuck around just to enjoy a stroll around the lake on one of the better days this spring.

Beth Lyons came out with her two sons, JD and Ryan, and said they were having a great time.

“They've had a lot of fun and have just been moving from one thing to another,” Lyons said. “I've learned a lot to – it's been fun.”