2025
Central Gardens will serve as the native community’s ecosystem. Our ministry believes that Central Gardens will flourish better by having a solid strategic and maintenance plan for a native plant community. Developing a rich native plant environ will benefit birds, other wildlife and humans by producing vibrant flowers and plentiful fruits and seeds. In addition, the native plant community will combat climate change, reduce noise and carbon pollution, not to mention cultivate many mental health benefits of biophilia. We will expand our ministry by increasing Central Garden’s produce, collaboration and educational reach within our church family (collaborating ministries) and outreach, to better serve youth in the community.
New Hope UMC
$458
Short term goals are to establish a native garden to attract pollinators. Long term goal is to increase awareness of others to the need and significance of native plants. This garden will change a high upkeep lawn space into a native garden. We plan to have the church members, boy scouts, and head start children and families help with up keep of the garden. In so doing they will learn the benefit of native plants and help spread the word.
Flance Early Learning Center – Senses of Nature Garden
$448
Their project goal is to improve the already existing outdoor space to have more areas for the children and wider community in the 63106-zip code to have purposeful interactions with nature. Another goal is to further improve the sensory development of our children by cultivating specific native plants for touch, smell, and sight as well as building a sensory walkway.
They will be using native plants to restore and develop the native plant community. Native plants will improve biodiversity by creating a habitat that lets native species thrive. To further encourage biodiversity and the communities’ understanding of nature, they will be installing bird houses. This space will be utilized as an outdoor classroom, especially for sensory development, while kids develop skills on how to properly interact with and appreciate nature. Our outdoor space is also always open to our wider community to encourage their further knowledge of local ecosystems within their own community landscape.
Girl Scout Camp Cedarledge Native Restoration and Education Garden
$500
Camp Cedar ledge services the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. It is a many acred campground with multiple trails, creeks, campsites, fields, and a large lake among forests in a rural area of Pevely, Missouri. The grant site sits near a creek and is enclosed by a narrow black topped road which makes it a triangular shape and keeps out invasive plants. It has large trees nearby which makes the site part sun/shade and dry to medium moisture. There are 5 troops ranging from grades 1-5 that will be responsible for winter milk jug seed sowing (December), planting (mid April 2026), and long-term care. The project sponsors are very knowledgeable about native plants and are very invested along with the Ranger to complete this project and use it for educating the troops on the critical role native plants play in the ecosystem and to promote stewardship in generations to come. There are several environmental/outdoor badges that can be earned using this site.
Parkway Early Childhood at McKelvey Primary
$429
The grant will allow purchasing native plants to establish the Panda Pollinator Garden in an island near the entrance to the school. The intent of the Panda Pollinator Garden is to attract a diversity of pollinators throughout the growing season and to serve as an outdoor laboratory showcasing caterpillars for students and adults. The project team involved children and parents in the gathering of supplies (cardboard for solarization, cut logs for walking paths, and mulch) and planting the plants. Over 80 plants representing 18 native species were planted by a volunteer team of school teachers, administrators, parents and students. The garden is planned to be maintained by students ages 3-5, teachers and parent volunteers
Marti’s Garden
$500
The Marti Frumhoff Garden is located in a 2300 square foot triangular median where Utah Street meets Morganford, one of the busier intersections of the Tower Grove South neighborhood. Hundreds of cars pass by every day, and there is lots of neighborhood foot traffic by people using Macdonald Park, which is less than one block away. Native landscape designer Susie Van de Riet provided pro bono design consultation. There is a large group of experienced gardeners who show up on a regular basis for maintenance.
Tillman Elementary school
$497
Tillman Elementary has an established Courtyard Classroom with a vegetable garden and chickens. Their long-term goal is to establish this space as the center for outdoor education by landscaping with native plants and focusing on how natives can boost biodiversity to align with the school’s Green Schools Quest goals. Some areas will focus on species that support bird habitat and the benefits of native groundcover (not grass), and some areas will focus on how native plants help with erosion control and they will document the growth of the native garden through observations. The project is fully supported by the school district and by the school’s PTO.
Seedpod South-East Webster Groves
Blackburn Park, Edgar Rd. entrance
$470
Seedpod South-East Webster was formed in 2024 and all members are from the Webster Groves area. Carmen Freeman is the leader. The goal of the group is to continue the mission of the St. Louis Chapter of Wild Ones: promote environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The group has been weeding two self-contained garden areas on the upper parking (Edgar Road entrance) for the last year. The Webster Groves Parks department has given the group permission to pursue a grant. The sites will have some native and nonnative plants. The nonnative plants were previously planted by the Parks Department. The group does have permission to remove some of the nonnatives but not all. All plants will be identified “native” or “nonnative” to help educate the community about plant identification.
2024
Little Green Thumbs educational project
$500
Krystal Coxon’s 3-class series aims to teach 12 children ages 7 to 12 years old to train like a naturalist, design like a landscape architect, and plant like a gardener. The classes include education and games about native plants, design strategies, planting a 24-foot diameter cul-de-sac in native plants and educating friends, family and the community about the planting project.
The cul-de-sac was originally grass and the project will create a diverse native plant community, provide food and habitat for bees, birds and butterflies and serve as an educational example to the participating children and their families as well as the neighborhood and attendees at the student project fair where the children plan to present their work to attendees. The students also plan to create a flier about the project and benefits of native plants to distribute to homes in the neighborhood near the cul-de-sac.
Ackerman School Native Rain Garden Florissant
$250
Ackerman school aims to establish a permanent rain garden using exclusively native plants in a central location accessible to all staff and students. We wish to engage students in the installation and maintenance of this shared learning space.
Ackerman has a history of valuing native landscaping, gardening, and sustainable practices with students. Several staff and volunteers have worked to establish outdoor learning spaces, beautification of school grounds using native plants, and established sensory and raised bed garden spaces including a greenhouse and compost system. Grants will allow us to improve and expand on existing native garden infrastructure to better engage students in the process. This grant would allow us to involve water capturing to expand our habitat in an aesthetic and functional way.
St. Stephen Protomartyr Parish Naturescape
$500/$300
They have partnered with parish and school members to create a nature scape for the preschool and younger school grades. Children at this school do not have a playground so this small mostly shady space gives them a new area to play. Outside of play via slides etc., they want their children to use this space to become more knowledgeable about nature and what it can provide. We are hoping to plant native plants and allow space for the kids to grow their own native gardens or even vegetable gardens. They have a second space that is in full sun next to the building where they will plant a prairie of plants. The teachers will use this space to help educate our students about native plants and different aspects of nature as a whole.
Earth Angels Pollinator Garden at St. Joseph’s Academy
$340
As described by the Earth Angels: We have a left-over garden space from a teacher who retired a few years ago. St. Joseph’s Academy’s environmental club, Earth Angels, would like to make it into a pollinator garden for use with AP/ACP Biology and Honors Biology but also to have other disciplines use as well. We are going to plant asparagus this year and would like to plant sweet potatoes next year for harvesting in the spring and fall to use in our school’s cafeteria. We will also raise monarchs to tag and re-release back into the environment for their migration south
The garden will be maintained by the Earth Angels club moderator and members, ages 14-18, as well as teachers and other adults at St. Joseph’s Academy.
Lutheran Church of the Atonement native plant garden
1285 New Florissant Road, Florissant MO, 63031
$500
There is a 1200 sq ft island in an upper parking lot that has been turf and our Creation Care team would like to turn it into a native plant garden. Last fall the grass was covered with cardboard and topped with mulch. The long-term goal is to maintain the garden for birds, pollinators and other wildlife. This new garden would be very close to our K-8 elementary school and provide additional opportunity to learn about native plants and the benefits provided. Our Creation Care team has six members at this time who will assist in planting and maintaining the garden. It is possible to set up time for the school students to observe what is growing and watch for the birds and butterflies. I am a certified Master Naturalist with the Great Rivers Chapter and it possible that other members of the Chapter might help out from time to time. Our Men’s Club has agreed to fund $850 for the project. Another Atonement member is a landscape architect and he has worked with our team on choosing appropriate plants for this full sun area. I have priced plants according to his design from Waldbart Nursery and Forrest Keeling Nursery. To be fully funded, our goal is to reach $1500. The design includes about 60 plants, including a small tree to be planted in the fall and three areas of landscape boulders. The site does absorb rain water and is accessible to water from an outside spout on the school building. Our team will create a watering schedule to ensure the plants succeed.
Parkway Early Childhood Center Flagpole Garden
$350
The St Louis Chapter of Wild Ones awarded a $350 grant to the Parkway Early Childhood Center (PECC) located at 14605 Clayton Road, Ballwin, MO 63021. The site is an 18-foot diameter circular bed surrounding the PECC’s flagpole. It is very sunny and graces the front entrance to the facility. It has very high visibility to the PECC community: all parents, students and staff that enter the facility each school day pass by the site.
The goal of the project is to create a beautiful welcoming garden of native plants to serve as an entry feature for the nature and outdoor learning school at the site. The plan is to have classroom take turns watering and caring for the area. Students are 2-5 years old and a strong emphasis is placed on nature an outdoor learning in their curriculum. Maintenance will be performed by students and teachers throughout the school year and by teachers and staff during the summer. The project was conceived and is headed by Dr. Elena Amirault, Director of Early Learning for Parkway School District.
On September 20, 2024 after site preparation was complete (solarization with cardboard and landscape fabric), fifty-two plugs and quart natives were planted and watered by PECC staff and students. Plants chosen, in consultation with Wild Ones Grant Committee members, included small skullcap, bee balm, calamint, purple coneflower, aromatic aster, foxglove beardtongue and butterfly milkweed.
Oakleigh Woods Homeowners Association
$500
The St Louis Chapter of Wild Ones awarded a $500 grant to the Oakleigh Woods Homeowners
Association in Ballwin, MO, for purchasing native plants and shrubs to replace non-native plants in the
Oakleigh Woods drive garden circle (cul-de-sac). The objective was to create a functional, biodiverse
landscape. This was a milestone for Wild Ones Grant Team as it was the first grant given to a
Homeowners Association for a common ground native plant garden. A detailed plan was developed that
incorporated large dead tree trucks, benches and existing large rocks. The site was cleared of all
vegetation by hand weeding and cardboard sheet solarization. Plants were purchased and planted on
April 28, 2024 by members of the Homeowners Association, including children. Plantings included
shining blue star, showy goldenrod, blazing stars, blue sage, monarda, blue wild indigo, yellow wild
indigo, prairie beardtongue, rattlesnake master, prairie dropseed, golden currant and Missouri
maidenbush. A circular ring of turf grass was maintained to allow walking around the perimeter of the
garden. Plant labels were also installed to help residents identify the native plants. The native plantings
will be maintained by Oakleigh Homeowners Association members under the direction of Stacie Sontag
and Lori Stringer. Dog walkers, bicyclers and neighborhood children visit and play around the circle. The
Oakleigh Woods Homeowners Association manages a total of 4 garden island in their subdivision. It is
hoped that this first one will serve as a model to be replicated in the other 3 cul-de-sacs.
Bristol Elementary School Girl Scouts
$500
The Girl Scouts of the Eastern Missouri Troop 3508 submitted a grant proposal for installing a pollinator garden in an enclosed area on the north side of Bristol Elementary at 20 Gray Avenue in Webster Groves, Missouri. The area was previously used as pollinator habitat, so it is known to be native plant friendly with full sun. The site has had wood chips delivered to build up the back slope and be used for paths. It currently has benches, a raised bed, a gravel walking path and two composting bins. It is fenced with chain linked fence with a gate. The site visit was on 2/21/24 the team met with two of the girl scout leaders and two of the troop’s girl scouts. Paige Stroud is the contact. Her daughter wrote the grant and typed it up and discussed it with the team. The native plant list was discussed and we suggested the best out of the list for the area, with blooms for all seasons. A couple shrubs were included.
The Troop has discussed ongoing maintenance with future girl scouts as continuing the opportunity for them to earn the Bronze Award and environmental badges. The Faculty/School District has stated that they will not help maintain this area.
Missouri History Museum east courtyard project
$350
Our first grant of 2024 is for a large and culturally significant site – the Bernoudy Courtyard of the Missouri History Museum on Lindell Blvd. in Forest Park. The Courtyard was created in 2000 when the Museum added the Emerson Center to its south side. The remodel added two enclosed open-air courtyards; the Bernoudy Courtyard was landscaped with pavers and native plants.
The History Museum is using the Wild Ones grant to restore native plants to this space; existing redbuds have grown tall enough that many areas that once were sunny are now shaded. A team of History Museum employees and volunteers will plant and maintain this space with approximately 95 plants in a variety of garden spaces within the courtyard. The renovated garden will provide hands-on learning for their Early Childhood and K-12 programming. Master Gardeners will help to maintain the garden.
2023
AmeriCorps St Louis
$238
AmeriCorps St. Louis’s yearly cohort of national service Members spend the bulk of their 11-month term on environmental stewardship projects throughout Missouri and Illinois. As part of their training, Members are taught plant identification skills through visits to partnering conservation agencies and through surveys of local trees around the Soulard neighborhood where we are headquartered. Upgrading our front planting beds with a selection of native flowers and sedges would provide another outlet for Member education, especially relevant to the cohort’s service on ecological restoration sites where they will encounter some of these species. In addition to use as a training resource within our programs, the space would be used to educate volunteers, partners, and guests on the importance of our work and the benefits of restoring native plant populations.
Danny Coverson Community Garden
$300
This Hope in The Ville’s (HITV) project is tied to our community garden which we hope will provide a place for collaborative work among community members allowing them to socialize and learn about the importance and significance of gardening for food and native habitats. Overall, this program’s purpose is to teach, demonstrate and provide resources that encourage thinking, behaving, and striving for unity within society, growing compassion in the community. This project will restore native shrubs and wildflowers into an otherwise urban area on the north part of the site, and contribute to healthy pollination of the raised bed vegetable garden and orchard.
Lusher Elementary School
$350
Turtle Pond Project is an area in an enclosed courtyard at the school. There are several box turtles that make this their home and hibernate during the winter. They have been successful egg layers and have been raised at a teacher’s house for genetic diversity. We granted the site $350 for habitat improvements. Native plants for dry sunny areas, shade, and a rain garden. They plan to also include a gradual edge into a small water container. The grant team also suggested small native trees and shrubs that will provide fruits for natural food for the turtles and birds. The school is getting a mural painted on the wall enclosures, They hope to attract native pollinators and teach the students about native plants and pollinator relationships. Native plants chosen by grantees and grantors: Purple coneflowers, (purple, butterfly & swamp) milkweeds, columbines, red-whisker cleome, golden alexanders, cardinal flower, beebalm, mayapples, asters, native irises
Principia School K thru 12th
$400
The St Louis Chapter of Wild Ones awarded a $400 grant to the Principia School, 13201 Clayton Road Town & County, MO 63131, for purchasing native plants to enhance the native plant garden in the courtyard between their Biology and Art classrooms. Shade-loving native plant species, including packera, American beak grain grass, alum root, zigzag goldenrod, cedar sedge, Bradbury’s monarda, goats beard and wild geranium were planted in May 2023. These plants will fill in shady areas and help provide year-round interest and instruction resources to biology and art classrooms as well as others passing the area. The objective is to attract more beneficial insects including native pollinators and to educate students about native ecosystems. The courtyard will be used for education purposes for high school and middle school students. The native plantings will be maintained by Principia’s student volunteer students under the direction of April Anderson and Hope Gribble. This grant compliments a nearby thriving pollinator garden that was made possible by a Wild Ones grant in 2012.
2022
Webster Groves City Hall Pollinator Garden
$400
The short-term goal of the project is to use perennials to replace annuals, and create a pollinator garden for the Mayor’s Monarch pledge. Long term goals include education and seed sourcing for areas along the riparian corridor. The project will restore native communities, provide beauty, habitat for wildlife, and engage the community and all age groups, including Webster Groves Volunteer Corps (Green Keepers), scout groups, school groups, and master gardeners.
$490
The goal of this project, as planted by the Boy Scouts of America, is to provide landscaping to the root cellar site. We want the native plants to flourish and prevent invasive plants from retaking the area, as well as preserve a historical root cellar by bringing it out of its state of decay. This project will provide a place for native animals to live and restore a formerly honey suckle infested area with native plants
Green House Venture Gardens St. Louis
$450
The goals of the project include providing opportunities in the plant science fields to underserved student populations in South St. Louis. This includes projects introduced and supported in partner classrooms, classes afterschool and during the summer for students on project site, studies of plants in terraced and Prairie and Pollinator Study Garden. The grant money requested will be used to plant one of the terrace beds on site. Plants will showcase diversity of Missouri native plants. The native plants requested will help educate students about plant diversity, uses, and why they are important. The students involved will be from Grades 4, 5, and 6 from partner schools. Organizations/Non-Profits involved in developing and maintaining the project include: Washington University, St. Louis University, St. Louis Zoo/Coahoma Orchards, Harris-Stowe, St. Margaret of Scotland, Mullanphy Investigative Center, Tower Grove Christian Academy, St. Louis Language Immersion, St. Louis Master Gardener Program, St. Louis Community College, Missouri Department of Transportation, Forest ReLeaf, Missouri Department of Conservation, Danforth Plant and Science Center, Gerardo Camilo of the Biology Department of St. Louis University, and students and staff of the Green House Venture.
Crestwood Elementary School Outdoor Classroom and Garden
$400
As we work to become a Missouri Green School, our goal is to build an amazing outdoor space where students will be stakeholders; providing a place of curiosity and hands-on learning, hosting educational speakers, and further connecting our community with our school. Long term, this space is meant to inspire and will reflect the importance – along with educational guidance – of living more sustainably. The plot where the garden space is being built was approved due to its visibility and accessibility from the school parking lot and sidewalks. Since our campus lacks biodiversity, by developing a native garden we are welcoming habitat for native wildlife as well as new experiences to our school grounds for the students and families. The area will provide interactive opportunities for our K-5 students to learn about plants, cycles, and ecosystems – as well as a space for art and connecting to nature.
2021
Friends of the Windsor Branch of the Jefferson County Library
$250
We plan to supplement the native pollinator plants in the raised garden beds built in 2019 as part of an Eagle Scout project, and to establish native plants along the west side of our library building in place of invasive shrubs. This is a wooded edge area that should support plants requiring partial shade. The plantings will support pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds using Missouri native wildflowers and shrubs.
2020
Friends of the Ferguson Market Community Native Garden
$464
The goals of this project are to provide habitat for pollinators and to educate an underserved population the benefits and importance of pollinators. The bed will be part of the Ferguson Market, which is readily accessible to the neighborhood. It will also be part of area being developed as demonstration gardens by the Master Gardener Program. This area is accessible and will be utilized by UCP Heartland. UCP programs for adults and children living with disabilities. It will also restore an area for natives while providing a habit for native wildlife.
Jefferson Elementary School Rain Garden
$132.50
We want to build a rain garden. A rain garden provides opportunities to teach about environmental stewardship, human impacts on the hydrosphere, and biological diversity. We hope to inspire our students to see themselves as scientists by cultivating a love of ecology through hands-on learning in our rain garden. We also aspire to provide habitat for native pollinators, habitats that help establish an urban corridor for pollinators. Visitors from Gateway Greening, the Audubon Center, the Litzsinger Ecology Center, Danforth Plant Center, and our local wayside community garden are expected throughout the year for various projects ranging from professional development to ecology studies.
Ames School – Old North St. Louis Butterfly Garden
$250
The Ames School -Old North St. Louis Butterfly Garden was developed in 1996. The garden is now owned by the Gateway Greening Land Trust. They wished to add native plants to a flower bed formally planted with non-native rose bushes. This flower bed is on the front corner of the garden, a highly visible corner. Their goal is to attract more interest from neighbors and those passing the busy intersection. Having native plants in the front of the garden will showcase plants beneficial to butterflies and other pollinators.
Northwest Sports Complex Park Garden
$300
They will plant Missouri native plants to help educate, beautify, support biodiversity, add value and increase enjoyment to our citizens using our parks. By using natives, we will be creating habitat for wildlife that is very much needed. We will purchase signage from Grow Natives to help educate the public on the importance of natives and the critical ecosystems they create. This effort also includes removing invasive plants so common in the woods surrounding the complex. This is a very busy park and the garden should get a lot of attention.
Pierremont Elementary School School Garden
$500
This project in the Parkway School District will develop the native plant community within the schoolyard at Pierremont Elementary by providing native Missouri species for wildlife and pollinators. Because this garden will be right by the front
doors, all students, staff, and visitors will benefit from the beauty and educational signage. Students involved in the project will educate others about the new garden. The long-term goal for this project is for the pollinator garden to become integrated into the curriculum for all K-5 students within the building as an area where they can make observations, learn about native Missouri species, and the importance of pollinators to our ecosystem. This project is also a part of the Green Schools Quest held by the United States Green Building Council-Missouri Gateway Chapter.
2019
The main goal of this project is to plant wildflowers to help the bees in the area and teach the kids at Lyon Academy about pollinators. We will plant many types of wildflowers, which will diversify and strengthen the surrounding ecosystem. The flowers will be a food source for the bees and the bees won’t have to risk going far from their home. By helping the bees,they will be helping pollination of the surrounding ecosystem. This is a project of an Eagle Scout of Boy Scouts of America.
Westchester Elementary School
$400
In April, students, parents and staff installed 20 plus species of native plants in an effort to make better use of the green spaces on the school campus as well as to help educate students about the importance of pollinators and native gardening. This project is one component of Westchester’s sustainability efforts which also include composting and raising chickens.
New City School
$500
New City School students and parents will remove non-native plants from around the school building and replace them with native plants. They want to increase native pollinator habitat while adding natural beauty to the school grounds. These gardens will be in addition to their already established butterfly garden and vegetable gardens. They are choosing plants based on student research and will use the gardens for further education.
EarthDance Organic Farm School
$480
EarthDance Organic Farm School gardeners and their volunteers will plant educational permaculture berms with native plants. These berms control water run-off. They would like to provide habitat for native pollinators. They will help pollinate and control pests in their vegetable gardens.
Don Robinson State Park
$375
This garden will be at the entrance to the park, planted inside the 18-foot-wide circle that displays the Don Robinson State Park sign. These plants will beautify the entrance and educate the public. The plants were chosen from a list of natives to the La Barque creek watershed. The plants will be planted by a team of Missouri Master Naturalists and the Sierra Club.
Wren Hollow Elementary School
$250
Wren Hollow Elementary School, a K-5th grade school in the Parkway School District, established a 900 square feet pollinator garden by planting over 90 native plants in a previously lawned area on school grounds, between the school building and the parking lot. The project was a cooperative effort between the school PTO, three teachers, the school principal, assistant principal, the Parkway School District Director of Sustainability & Purchasing, the Grounds Supervisor and parent volunteers. It will serve the school community as a place teachers can take their students for numerous educational opportunities and also contribute to the beautification of the front yard of Wren Hollow. Outside educators in the St Louis area will also be invited for tours of the garden.
Wildlife Rescue Center
$495
The Wildlife Rescue Center, a professional rehabilitation facility and environmental education provider, will build a sensory garden using native plants. The sensory garden will provide adults and children visiting the the Center the opportunity to directly interact with a native plant garden that engages all of the senses. In the long-term, the sensory garden will enhance our ongoing efforts to educate the public about native plants and animals as well as encourage visitors to create and restore native habitat in their own yards and communities.
The sensory garden will bring the Wildlife Rescue Center closer to the goal of restoring the native habitats on their 12-acre property. Located within the Kieffer Creek watershed, an imperiled and ecologically significant waterway, the Wildlife Rescue Center strives to be a leader in environmental stewardship and watershed protection.
2018
The St. Louis Science Center
$250
The Science center has a one-acre agriculture exhibit, with displays about pollinators and some native plantings but could use more to fill in vacant areas. They requested some assistance in choosing the correct plants. They will educate visitors on how and where to plant natives in their yards.
The Museum of Transportation
$500 awarded
This project will demonstrate the use of native ground covers in a variety of light conditions and help educate the public on their use. This planting is expected to reduce maintenance costs of weeding and mulching, while providing an environment that is attractive to museum visitors as well as native pollinators and birds.
Grace and Peace Fellowship Church
$150 awarded
The church congregation wants to create an educational native plant garden to beautify the grounds and attract wildlife. The focus is to educate the public as they walk or drive by this busy city street.
Wings of Hope
$500 awarded
Wings of Hope (WoH)is an aviation nonprofit organization delivering humanitarian programs globally to lift people in need toward health and self-sufficiency. The parking lot at our world headquarters in Chesterfield has an island that needs landscaping renovation. WoH would like to develop this island into a native plant showplace and a native pollinator garden. The WoH headquarters is visited annually by people from all over the world and the parking lot island is very visible to every visitor. Everyone who visit the headquarters will see the pollinator garden. The volunteers and other visitors will be exposed to signage in the island that will help educate them about the features and benefits of native plant communities.
LaSalle Middle School
$400 awarded
The 300 members of the sixth-grade class will plant side by side demonstration gardens, one with native plants and the other with nativars. They will use these gardens to collect pollinator data for a citizen science project. Gateway Greening has assisted building the raised beds for this project as well as vegetable gardens.
The Exploration Station
$200 awarded
The Exploration Station Native Butterfly Garden is in Byrnes Mill, Missouri. This early childhood center uses nature as a teaching tool. With the help of student’s parents and the children themselves, they will build a native garden at the entrance to the school to attract butterflies and other insects. They wish to teach the children and their parents why native plants are important to wildlife.
Bridges Pollinator Garden
$500 awarded
Bridges Pollinator Garden Project is in Belleville, Illinois. They wish to build a large prairie garden in one location and 5 other small gardens next to their 100 year old office building that will be a sensory garden that includes the 5 senses: Hearing, Touch, Smell, See, Taste. The Bridges Networking Connections school is for 18 to 22 year old high school graduates with developmental delay. The purpose is to transition these young adults into society. The Belleville high school across the field from this location will be involved with this project. They also have a large vegetable garden at this location.
Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School
$200 awarded
The 4th grade class will plant a pollinator garden to compliment the vegetable gardens in the school’s Seed to Table program. The goal of this new garden is to “teach the students to respect the pollinators and understand the important impact on the ecosystem”.
Wildlife Rescue Center
$175 awarded
The Wildlife Rescue Center is building side by side gardens to compare numbers of pollinators attracted to native plants versus non-native plants. The center continues to work on establishing native plant communities on all 12 acres. Our grant of $175 will help with this effort.
2017
World Bird Sanctuary
$400 awarded
The World Bird Sanctuary staff wish to build pollinator gardens in raised wooden boxes near the front of the new bird display cages. The junior volunteers ages 12 to 17 will plant and maintain wildflower gardens with the plants they have chosen. They hope to educate themselves and the 30,000 yearly visitors to the sanctuary about the relationship between native pollinators and native plants.
Keysor Elementary School
$393.50 awarded
Keysor school 4th graders are building a butterfly garden in front of their school building. The students researched host and nectar plants to feed our native butterflies and are asking for money to buy the appropriate plants. We suggested some additional late blooming nectar plants to add to their list. Their school also has rain gardens and a prairie garden in the back of the school.
Holy Cross Academy-Our Lady of Providence Campus
$300 awarded
The school requested a grant to plant a rain garden in a shady wooded area down the hill from the playground and previous prairie planting. The school parents group constructed a berm to slow the flow of rain water that drains down the hill. Our Wild Ones group suggested plants that will tolerate this condition.
Town and Country Community Garden
$200 awarded
The gardeners want to provide a beautiful, sustainable wildflower garden that exposes
the other organic vegetable gardeners and their families to the beauty of natives and to provide habitat for pollinators essential to the success of the community garden as well as the landscapes of surrounding neighbors. They hope to enjoy memorable encounters with birds, butterflies, and other wildlife.
Herculaneum High School
$250 awarded
Last year a teacher started a High School Ecology club formed with 27 students 9th-12th grade level, ages 14-18. One thing all the students wanted to do was create a wildflower garden using native Missouri plants to attract butterflies and other pollinators. The garden is in between buildings near a sidewalk that all students must walk by every day. There is a waiting list to join the club.
McGrath Elementary School
$122 plus donated plants from 3 Wild Ones members.
The 4th grade teachers at this Brentwood school and their after school group of super gardeners want to build a butterfly garden for the students of the school. They hope to teach the benefits of native plants and insects.
Blades Elementary School
$250 plus donated plants from Wild Ones members.
This Melville school’s teachers and parents in the “Garden Club” will construct a new garden of native plants to teach students, teachers, and families how native plants attract native insects. They are calling it their “Insectary”.
The Ethical Society of St. Louis
$250 plus donated plants from 2 Wild Ones members.
The are building a butterfly garden next to the nursery school playground. Their goal is to attract pollinators and Monarchs. They will plant many milkweed plants as well as nectar plants for butterflies. They have plans for their garden to be a Monarch Waystation.
2016
Cole County Health Department, Jefferson City, MO
$250 awarded
Cole County Health Department is celebrating a 100-year anniversary. Part of their plan is to build two native plant gardens on the edge of their parking lot. They will invite staff and hospital clients to participate in establishing the garden. The goal is to establish a relaxing, beautiful, and educational garden.
Transportation Museum/St. Louis County Park
$500 awarded
The Transportation Museum of St. Louis County is creating an educational demonstration native plant garden designed by the students of Meramec Community College. They intend this to be a pollinator garden. The focus is on educating the general public who visit the park.
Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School
$150 awarded
The Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School has an active seed-to-table education program. The new native plant garden will attract beneficial insects to the school vegetable garden and orchard. It will provide habitat for birds, insects and small mammals. It will teach the children to recognize native plants.
Woodridge Middle School
$230 awarded
The Woodridge Middle School’s goal is to have an outdoor classroom with native plants to help teach students about nature and give them hands on experience. This garden will be inside a court yard in the middle of the school. The four walls all have windows facing the courtyard, currently all they can see is a mowed lawn. The native garden will make this space interesting and fun.
Ozark Regional Library
$300 awarded
The Ozark Regional Library wants to help educate the community concerning the benefits of landscaping with native plants by planting native gardens using signage to identify the plants and their benefits to the environment.
The College School
$500 awarded
The College School is building a new learning center at their LaBarque campus that will be landscaped completely with native plants. The grant money will be used to create a pollinator rain garden with several different species of milkweed as well as a variety of flowers for bees and wasps. Students will tag Monarch butterflies that visit the garden to track their migration.
2015
Little Creek Nature Area /Ferguson-Florissant School District
$250 awarded to engage, inspire, and educate local urban youth, especially in monarch butterfly conservation, as part of the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps and Student Conservation Association. Students will plant a pollinator garden, which will be available to the public, as well as to students who go there for classes.
City Garden Montessori School
$500 awarded to create an outdoor learning space, including native planting areas and vegetable beds for all City Garden students that will provide an extension of the Montessori classroom instruction materials. City Garden students will use the space to learn mathematics, environmental ethics, science, cultural, and social economics lessons.
Revitalization 2000 / The Ville Family Gardens
$500 to reclaim and beautify two vacant lots for the goal of providing education and earned-income opportunities for the community youth. Native plants and seeds will be used for the beautification of additional lots and for residents to plant in their own yards.
McKinley Meadows Community Garden
$300 to develop a native plant garden as the catalyst for place-based workshops in papermaking, book arts, and creative writing, which will be held at the neighborhood’s edible urban forest, McKinley Meadows.
Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School
$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.
Chesterfield Elementary School
$200 to help the 5th grade students create a sensory garden near their natural play zone using native plants.
Campbell Montessori School
$200 to plant a butterfly garden outside their classroom window. The plants were chosen by 9- and 10-year-old students who are studying butterflies.
2014
The Audubon Center at Riverlands
$300 awarded to build native plant gardens at three schools. The gardens will be part of an afterschool program to educate 3rd-5th graders about various conservation efforts including the benefits of planting native plant gardens, creating bird friendly communities, and alternate energy sources.
- Blackhurst School, 2000 Elm Street, St. Charles, MO 63301
- Oak Hill School, 801 S. Spoede Road, St Louis, MO 63131
- Lincoln School, 625 S. Sixth Street, St. Charles, MO 63301 (no longer maintained)
Dogtown Eco-Village
$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.
Ambrose Family Center Preschool, 222 West Cedar Avenue, Webster Groves MO
$300 awarded to buy plants for a rain garden.
2013
Berkeley Middle School, 8300 Frost Avenue, Berkeley MO (no longer maintained)
$200 awarded for design and maintenance consultation to plan a native plant garden.
Shining Rivers Waldorf School, 915 N. Elm Avenue, St. Louis, MO
$535 awarded for the purchase of native plants and seeds to create a garden to integrate native plants into the school curriculum.
Immanuel Lutheran School, 115 S. Sixth St., St. Charles MO
$370 awarded for native plants in an early childhood natural playscape.
Crossroads College Preparatory School, 500 DeBaliviere Avenue, St. Louis, MO
$560 awarded for the purchase of native plants to refurbish a large rain garden.
2012
The Principia, 13201 Clayton Road, Saint Louis, MO
$600 awarded 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. View photos of the project.
2011
University of Missouri-St. Louis’ 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.
2010
Nottingham School, 4915 Donovan Ave., St. Louis, MO
Nottingham School offers community access and job training for special needs students. Students in the maintenance and landscaping programs installed and will maintain the plantings, which are in front of the school. The site faces Francis Park in south St Louis. $750 grant for plants and mulch.
2009
Lonedell School, 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.
2008
Hazelwood West Middle School, 12834 Missouri Bottom Rd., Hazelwood, MO (no longer maintained)
On May 31, fifteen volunteers planted 1000 native plants at the Hazelwood West Middle School rain garden. The plants were donated by Shaw Nature Reserve. Students scattered native seeds on another day.
New City School, 5209 Waterman Blvd., St. Louis, MO
Funds to purchase serviceberry trees.
2007
All Saints School, 7 McMenamy Rd., St. Peters, MO (no longer maintained)
$150 for creation of a native plant outdoor classroom garden.
Overland Historical Society, 2404 Gass Ave., Overland, MO
$400 for a public Missouri native plant community garden.
Wild Ones Seeds for Education (SFE) School Grant Program
$150. Seeds for Education began in 1996 and was named in honor of naturalist and inspirational leader Lorrie Otto. The program encourages Wild Ones members (as parents, grandparents and community members) to help children learn about the natural world.