Native Garden thriving at the Beith House, St. Charles, Ill. Photo by Debra Corwin, July 2025.
The 1850 Beith House is a spectacular limestone historic home located just steps from the Fox River in downtown St. Charles. With hundreds of people walking and biking past the house on the Fox River Trail or over the 1904 Cable Piano Factory Bridge, the Beith House stands out as a real landmark.
While the building itself is stately, members and friends had commented on the poor state of the landscaping around the house. Over the years, it’s been planted with various flowering bushes, grasses, and annuals but nothing really thrived.
In 2023, a group of volunteers from the Greater Kane County Chapter of Wild Ones offered to submit a design proposal for a “Native Garden” in front of the Beith House. The Chapter was founded in 2009 with the commitment to promoting the use of native plants in landscaping, gardening, naturescaping, and land restoration. They believed that a native garden would be an example of the benefit of natural landscaping, even next to a busy parking lot. Plus, there are so many benefits to using native plants:
Once established, native plants are low maintenance
They have deep roots and help reduce erosion
They are resilient and good for the environment
Pollinators love them
And they are pretty!
Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley, which owns and has their office in the Beith House, was delighted to support the proposal! In the fall of 2024, the new front garden was prepped, planted, mulched, and watered. As the weather warmed in the spring of 2025, evidence of last year’s plantings started peeking up through the soil. Over the spring and summer, the garden continues to establish itself for the future.
Isn’t nature amazing?
Providing the vision and the hard work from the Greater Kane County Chapter of Wild Ones were Trish Gibbons, Kim Haag, Karen Sherman, Mary Alice Masonick, and Pat Del Guidice. Preservation Partners members Christine and Jim Kautz also put in some work. We so appreciate them!
Landscaping behind the Beith House has also been undergoing a renovation, which we hope will be complete sometime next year.
So, the next time you walk past the Beith House, take a moment to look at the native garden in front of the house and read the sign which lists the many species of native plants. Seeing how this young, newly planted garden is thriving, we know it will only become more beautiful over time.
Thank you Wild Ones!
