But from the blackfoot daisies and rock roses down to the mulch made of crushed pecan shells, the pair of 200-square-foot gardens are the culmination of 12 students’ months long study of South Texas’ native plants.

“That’s student empowerment: letting them make these decisions,” said teacher Elijiah Rios of the Southeast branch of the Boys and Girls Club, one of the instructors for the First Bloom program at the Missions National Historic Park. First Bloom is a nationwide program supported by the National Park Foundation to educate urban youths about the natural world. Former First Lady Laura Bush launched the program in 2007 to honor another former first lady, Lady Bird Johnson…

“A lot of San Antonians don’t know they have a national park in their backyard,” he said…

Although students will now shift their focus to beautifying their Boys and Girls Club campus, the remainder of the program will include periodic trips to check and care for the gardens they planted Friday.

“The process definitely doesn’t stop when they put it in the ground, and they need to learn that,” Rios said.

Other activities have ranged from explaining the parts of a plant to history lessons about the crops cultivated by Spanish settlers at the historic missions.

“We’ve taught meteorology and biology mixed in with colonial history as to why some plants were brought over,” said Castanos… Students have also taken field trips such as a Saturday morning spent locating invasive plant species near Mission San Juan…

Students cited learning about such things as the water cycle and soil types in their science classes, but added they liked that the First Bloom program gave them a chance to get their hands dirty.

“It’s kind of like the same thing, but a whole different kind of lesson with actual animals and actual plants,” Abigail said.

Today filmaker Ken Burns will receive a tour of the new gardens from the kids. Burns’ upcoming film, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, was sponsored in part by the National Park Foundation. The six-part, 12-hour series set to air in September 2009 on PBS explores the history and heritage of America’s national parks.

‘Adolfo Guzman, 13, is already becoming a green thumb, recently instructing his uncle in how to plant a potted coneflower. “He was doing it all wrong,” Adolfo said.’

Read the entire article here.

I just wanted to pass along a couple of thoughts I had after the workshop that might be of use to other First Bloom participants.

1) SEED CUPS
For groups that will be using ecocups with their students - you might want to consider having students plant both seeds and seedlings in different cups. Many seeds (some might say most) have a relatively low germination rate and thus planting a seed or even several seeds may not result in an actual plant. You can get an idea of the germination rate if you purchase seed by looking at the number for pure live seed. If this number is low, you might want to have the students place many seeds in a single cup (like 5-10 depending on Pure Live Seed amount) OR have them both plant a seed and a seedling in two different cups.

This should reduce John’s experience of dead plants or no emergence killing one’s joy in growing plants. Also this is an opportunity to talk to students about what a seed is, why many of them don’t germinate (seed bank and/or unfilled seeds resulting from unpollinated flowers or not enough resources), and compare and contrast plants and animals (plants typically have low investment in a single offspring (seed) while animals have both high resource investment per individual (e.g., humans, elephants) and low resource investment (e.g., mice)).

2) PLANT SELECTION
If you use the wildflower center’s wonderful webpage to select native plants for your garden, please double check your species list with a local expert (like your NPS liaison or a local native plant society). While this website is awesome, it is very general. For example, many of the species listed for southern California do not grow in the Santa Monica Mountains or anywhere near here. While this generality is fine for many home gardeners, it is insufficient for national parks.

Good luck with your projects and I look forward to keeping in touch,

Christy

It is so very right, so very just, that the National Park Foundation has honored Lady Bird Johnson with what was most precious to her - helping boys and girls fall in love with our national parks and our native land.

First Bloom combines my mother’s dreams for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, her lifelong enjoyment of national parks, and her belief that children will make a better world if we give them our time, talent and treasure.

What greater testimony could we offer to a Lady who loved our native land so thoroughly!

Lady Bird Johnson spurred our nation to beautify its communities, highways, and parks by planting and nurturing native flowers. To honor her legacy, the National Park Foundation created First Bloom - a project that helps kids get their hands dirty.

On Sunday night, the opening “First Bloom Workshop” began with celebration and humility as Boys and Girls club leaders, plant conservation experts, park biologists, foundation officers and education specialists gathered at the Lyndon Baines Johnson National Historical Park in Texas.

Luci Baines Johnson, the daughter of the former President and Lady Bird Johnson, offered a special tour of her family home - now a national park - known as the “Texas White House”. She also shared her hope that First Bloom will inspire a life-long love affair with nature for today’s children, the same love affair her mother began as a young girl in Texas.

Through First Bloom they will learn how to protect fragile ecosystems by planting native species in our national parks and how to create and tend gardens in their own neighborhoods. This opening Workshop is designed to provide all members of the First Bloom team with the knowledge and skills necessary to assist children in their own communities with their gardens.

Workshop attendees come from the first five cities that will host the First Bloom project: Austin, TX; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Washington, DC. During the workshop, participants are learning about native plant gardening, garden design, native plant resources, and garden installation. The Workshop continues thorough Thursday.