Principia School students preparing prairie garden made possible in part by a Wild Ones grant
by Kevin Mowery
Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter Grants Committee
Did you know that the St Louis Chapter of Wild Ones has given over $15,000 in grants to support over 45 native plant gardens since 2007? These native plants sites have been used to spread the word about the importance of native plants in sustainable landscaping and the Wild Ones organization.
Grant sites are provided a Wild Ones sign that educates viewers that the plants are native and promotes our organization. We intend for each site to have a Wild Ones sign posted.
School, community groups, non-profits, churches and government agencies have all benefited from this rapidly growing program. We have already receive 5 grant requests for 2019!
A recent evolution of our grants program is that the Wild Ones grant committee has formalized a mentor program for each grant site to help insure these gardens are sustained in the future. A grant site mentor picks up the ball after the site has been planted/seeded and monitors the status of the site. The mentors visit the sites, take pictures and identify any issue that may develop. We currently have mentors for 17 grant sites. We want to expand this program to include all of the active grant sites.
As an active Wild Ones member, you will have an opportunity to volunteer as a grant site mentor at the February Wild Ones Meeting on February 13! It’s a great opportunity to visit native plant gardens in area, get ideas for native plantings and strengthen the Wild Ones presence in St Louis area.
If you are not comfortable being a mentor on your own right now, perhaps you could accompany one of existing mentors on a site visit. Together, we can insure that our grant sites continue to be testimony to the benefits of native plants and Wild Ones.
We had 14 gardens adopted at our last meeting. Thanks everyone!