LOCATION: 1989 Colonial Parkway, Fort Worth, TX. Located on the east side of the Fort Worth Zoo’s parking lot.
Workdays: 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month from 9:30 am to 11:00 am unless otherwise noted. If you’d like to volunteer at this garden, please contact us to be added to the volunteer list. An regular email is sent with details, dates, times, and potential workday cancellations.
Garden Leader: Stesha Pasachnik
The Fort Worth Zoo Grow Zone was established in 2019 by Zoo employees Amy Coslik and Rebecca Gonzales, with support from the Fort Worth Zoo and a Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program grant. The Grow Zone was set up in response to the National Wildlife Federation’s Monarch Pledge, for which Fort Worth was named a Champion City in 2019. The space sits on the east side of the Zoo’s parking lot and has the potential to educate over 1 million visitors each year about the importance of pollinators and native plants.
After soil solarization, the area was saturated with native seed mixes in the fall of 2019. The area was initially dense with native pollinator plants; however, invasive grass almost completely took over in the Spring of 2021. A grant from the Native Plant Society of Texas in 2022 enabled the complete restoration of the space. With these efforts, the Pollinator Zone was increased by almost 100%.
The idea for this space is to showcase different types of native plant gardening with a wild prairie in the back and a more manicured garden in the front. In the Fall of 2022, the back was seeded, and the front was planted thanks to the NPSOT grant and plants rescued from the Forest Park Demonstration Garden.
In late 2022, the Zoo began discussions with NPSOT to make this a demonstration garden for the society. In January 2023, the garden became an official NPSOT demonstration garden. The first volunteer day was held on January 13, 2023, and was a huge success! Volunteers continue to maintain this garden today.
