Now that spring is officially here, ways to spend more time outdoors are top of mind, including getting your hands dirty tending to the garden. For some inspiration and a sneak preview of wildflower season, Morning Edition host Andrew Garcia and I explored a Texas native garden that’s situated deep in the heart of urban Dallas.
The Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park is a garden complete with local Texas trees, grasses and wildflowers. It’s part of the George W. Bush Presidential Center located on the campus of Southern Methodist University just a block or so from busy North Central Expressway.
We wanted to know more about this hidden native garden, so a couple of weeks ago we took a field trip to the park where we got a tour from Robert Favela. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the center and the park, Favela is also a Texas Master Naturalist.
Our introduction to the garden started on the hill outside the west side of the center where we encountered many native plants.
“So the ecoregion here that we are trying to replicate or duplicate is the Blackland Prairie,” said Favela.
Blackland Prairie in the city
“Believe it or not, we're down to less than 1% of the Blackland Prairie, and we have a little bit of it here. This was an urban area that had homes here. It was student housing until the Bush Center came here. We’ve got 23 acres here on the SMU campus, and 15 of it we converted into a native Texas habitat that we used to have hundreds of years ago in this area.”
We walked deeper into the park until we came upon a meadow. It was bare when we visited, but Favela reminded us that scores of wildflowers were on their way.
“In these two areas here, we've created a little bit of a wildflower mix we’re used to seeing in the Blackland Prairies,” said Favela. “You can see we have some grasses, but all this that's green right now, it will be all wildflowers.”
Favela bent down and pulled back grass to reveal the bud of a yellow flower.
“The scrambled egg is starting to bloom. See the yellow? It looks like a scrambled egg,” he said.
In addition to the scrambled egg, Favela said a mix of Indian blanket, primrose, winecup and mealy blue sage would soon cover the field.
Butterfly migration
Besides the show of wildflowers in the spring, the area is also used to engage the community. In the fall, kids can help seed future crops of wildflowers. There’s also a monarch butterfly migration event where Master Naturalists show visitors how to distinguish between male and female butterflies and then tag them to see how far they go on their journey.
But butterflies aren't the only wild things passing through the park. Favela said that since the park opened a dozen years ago, wildlife has gradually started to return to the area. Foxes, bobcats and coyotes have all been spotted on the grounds.
Gardening tips
As we wrapped up our tour, we had one final question: How can we create a native Texas garden of our own?
Favela had four tips:
- Be patient and let it be native
- Don't overwater it.
- Don't overstimulate it.
- Drop a seed and you'll see what grows.
“That's my favorite part of being a naturalist,” he said, “just being patient with the natural environment taking care of the seeds.”
Details: The Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park offers tours every Saturday through May 31st.
