By Kathy Bildner
Member, Wild Ones – St. Louis Chapter
Immanuel Lutheran School in St. Charles
Photo by Kathy Bildner
115 S. Sixth St., St. Charles MO. In 2013 we awarded $370 for native plants in an early childhood natural playscape.
Our organization wants more native plant gardens in public spaces. We are willing to help other groups build these gardens by offering advice and a modest amount of money to get the process started. The geographic area covered is 35 to 40 miles out from St. Louis city in Missouri.
After we get a request, a crew of volunteers will meet with the applicants, observe the proposed garden site, and ask and answer questions. Wild Ones – St. Louis Chapter has been offering these grants for 10 years. We have given out 26 grants to schools, community gardens, and parks.
Not all of our grants have succeeded. In the last year, our members have gone back to look at all of our grantees. Four of these locations had no sign of a garden.
We have refined our process to help ensure success of grant gardens. Long-term commitment and maintenance of native gardens seem to be the biggest obstacles. Now our grant application asks for plans to address them.
If any Wild Ones members who are involved with any of our grant locations, would watch a site’s progress and report back, we would appreciate that. It would be helpful to hear about problems and how they are managing them.
Our grant application and a list of all our 26 grant locations are listed on the grant tab of this website.
I have included photos from a few of our gardens.
Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School
Photo by Kathy Bildner
348 S Mason Rd In 2015 we gave $300 to grow and maintain a prairie on the school grounds using native plants. The prairie will be integrated into the 3rd grade cross-curricular unit on ecosystems.
Overland Historical Society
Photo by Kathy Bildner
2404 Gass Avenue Two representatives (Eedie Cuminale and Karen Seal) from the Overland Historical society came to our Wild Ones meeting in August. We invited them to come and speak about their garden. We gave them $400 in 2007 to create a wildflower garden. Wild Ones member Anna Grace visited the location and suggested they plant along the split-rail fence. The wildflower garden is lovely and compliments the 150-year-old log cabin and barn on the site. They have maintained the garden with the help of volunteers. They have had multiple community events at this location. They invited us to attend their events.
Everyone is welcome to walk around their property anytime.
Contact information 314-426-7027
University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL)
Photo by Fran Glass
Campus Honors Ecology Research Program (CHERP), Honors College/Continuing Education. $530 to buy plants for the CHERP Prairie Rehabilitation Interpretive Area. The plantings are located on UMSL’s campus in the one-third most visible section of the Interpretive Area. The area is for use by undergrad students and for teacher in-service trainings.
Lonedell School
Photo by Kathy Bildner
7466 Hwy. FF, Lonedell MO. Our chapter donated $350 to Seeds for Education, the Wild Ones national grant program. The grant was awarded to Lonedell School for an outdoor classroom. They have planted a prairie garden in a back field and native shrubs and trees along the perimeter of the school yard.
The Principia
Photo by Lany Clough
13201 Clayton Road, Saint Louis, MO. In 2012 we awarded $600 for the purchase of native plants to create a prairie garden near the Upper School entrance. The project will be used to educate both students and the community about native plants. The garden is located just outside the biology classroom, and the ready access to native plants will enhance discussions of plant adaptations, ecosystem dynamics, and species identification. (A before photo is on our grant application page.)
Dogtown
Photo by Kathy Bildner
$200 awarded for a landscaping plan for two sites near 6419 Wise Ave: a median planter and a veterans memorial pocket park. The Dogtown Eco-village is a ‘virtual village’ of Dogtown residents interested in living sustainably; sharing resources; and promoting native landscaping, urban farming, energy-saving housing ideas, etc.
Crossroads College Preparatory School
Photo by Diane Oleskevich
#500 DeBaliviere Avenue, St. Louis, MO
$560 awarded for the purchase of native plants to refurbish a large rain garden.
Thanks Kathy for the update on the grant program! It is nice to see that there are success stories, as well as noting the locations so that we can keep an eye out for these and enjoy them too.
Wild Ones – if you know of an organization that is thinking about planting a native garden, encourage them to review our grant application guidelines and apply!
Kathy, the update is great. I wish Ironton was 50 miles closer so we could request a grant for the library planting!
I wonder if it would be possible for us to work with the SW Illinois chapter whereby we could offer funding and they would do evaluation and monitoring.
Our Wild Ones board is going to discuss Linda and Ed’s request. Linda is a long time member of our St. Louis chapter before moving to Ironton and wants to start a chapter down there. The SW Illinois chapter spun off from our group.