![Adult helping two youth put in plants in a garden with others working in background](https://metroblooms.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_9857-800x600.jpeg)
One morning last May, fifth-graders from the American Indian Magnet School gathered in a circle on a little island near the shore of Keller Lake Regional Park in Maplewood. Teacher Thomas Draskovic, a Lakota/Dakota culture and language specialist, led student drummers in a song acknowledging the four directions, the sky, and Mother Earth.
Then it was time for students to start planting a pollinator garden. They had a little help from Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District staff, Ramsey County Master Gardeners and other volunteers, and our own Special Projects Manager, Alexandra Zerzan, who manages the program.
This was one of the latest projects in Turf to Pollinators Gardens, a program showcasing how we can use native plants to support pollinators through the creation of six pollinator plantings in Twin Cities regional parks.
Metro Blooms and our partner, the non-profit Wilderness in the City, set up the program through a grant from Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Each project involves replacing turf grass, which offers little value to pollinators, with flowering native plants, providing habitat for bees, butterflies, other pollinators and other wildlife. Turf to Pollinator Gardens has been a group effort, involving partnership with conservation and park agencies, nonprofits and local landscape design firms.