Unity Gardens Fall Grants Now Available

Unity Gardens is accepting proposals until August 1 for native gardening projects in Anne Arundel County. The organization awards grants to homeowners’ associations, places of worship, and local nonprofits to complete citizen-led conservation landscaping projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These projects include rain gardens, erosion control projects, and pollinator gardens — all using trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses that are native to Maryland.

This grant cycle, Unity Gardens is offering grants up to $3,000 for native shrub and tree installations. Unity Gardens will continue to fund grants up to $1,000, and these funds may be used to purchase native trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials.

Eligible applicants must plan and create a budget for a potential project and then apply online. The Unity Gardens website contains information on how to plan a garden and where to buy native plants. In addition, Unity Gardens volunteers will also meet with potential grantees to discuss their ideas and advise on next steps. Those interested should visit www.unitygardens.org. The fall deadline to apply is August 1.

Unity Gardens also encourages the use of funds to help create the Maryland Pollinator Pathway. This is an effort to establish habitat and food sources for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects along a series of continuous corridors all along the Eastern Seaboard. The effort began in Connecticut in 2017, and this year, residents of Anne Arundel County began certifying existing pollinator-friendly habitats and planting new ones.

A nonprofit organization based in Anne Arundel County, Unity Gardens supports the building of community partnerships through its grassroots grants program. Each year since 2003, Unity Gardens has provided grants to schools, faith-based organizations, homeowners’ associations, scout troops and other nonprofits that require plant funding for their conservation landscaping plans to get off the ground. In the past 19 years, Unity Gardens has given out over $500,000 to over 500 organizations in Anne Arundel County.