The first of the gardens, located in front of Wilson Park Recreation Center, is marked by a sign and a boundary of boulders.
The first of the grasses and wildflowers should be coming up this spring and summer, but the plot should be at its best two years after its planting, according to Kim Mettenbrink, park planner for the city.
The work began about a year ago, she said.
“We started with a native grass seeding last summer and wildflower seeding this fall,” she said. “We’re expecting a pretty good show this year and an even better show in 2010.”
She said the wait is to be expected when dealing with native plants.
“Whenever you are mimicking nature you have to have a lot of patience and take it slow,” she said. “When you are establishing a native area it definitely takes two years.”
In addition to looking good, the native grasses require minimum maintenance, including watering and mowing, according to Val Roming, parks planning and construction superintendent for the city.
“We’re actually looking forward to not mowing it,” Roming said. “We want for it to be a nice display area for wildflowers and grasses that were native to this area before there was development here.”
Ms. Mettenbrink said the unfamiliar grasses required training of staff members charged with maintaining the area.
“We have to go out and educate our staff on what are the weeds and what should be pulled and what not,” she said, adding that the beauty of native grasses is subtle.
Roming said the department hopes to put more demonstration plots in other community parks.
“Once we’ve proven this model project to be a good thing, we will begin to do other areas the same way,” he said.
For Ms. Mettenbrink, getting native grasses into the parks system is personal.
“I’m very passionate about establishing more native areas and trying to educate people on what a native area is supposed to look like,” she said.
“There are some people that feel it (a native area) is only beautiful when the wildflowers are there, but these are native prairie Texas grasses and I think they hold a beauty of their own,” she said.
Some of the more than 30 grasses and flowers in the garden will include buffalo grass, little bluestem, sand lovegrass, blackeyed Susans, bluebonnet, standing cypress, primroses, coreopsis and Indian paintbrush.
