Unity Gardens is pleased to announce the 13 community groups that will receive funding to undertake native gardening projects in Anne Arundel County during Fall 2020. This month, Unity Gardens awarded almost $12,000 in small grants to homeowners’ associations, places of worship, and local nonprofits to complete citizen-led conservation landscaping projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These projects will be undertaken by communities who have planned safe, socially-distant outdoor events that utilize small groups of volunteers, and are in accordance with state guidelines around Covid-19.
Unity Gardens is thrilled that grant projects can continue this fall, after an uncertain spring. Groups receiving these grants will plant raingardens, undertake erosion control projects, and establish pollinator gardens– all using perennials and trees native to Maryland.
Additionally, an anonymous donor has helped Unity Gardens create and purchase interpretive signage that will be placed at 10 of these sites. These signs will help communities understand the value of native plants and explain how native vegetation can address stormwater issues while providing valuable habitat for pollinators, birds, and wildlife.
Unity Gardens is a nonprofit organization based in Anne Arundel County that supports the building of community partnerships through its grassroots grants program. Each year since 2001, Unity Gardens has provided grants to schools, places of worship, Watershed Stewards, Master Gardeners, homeowners’ associations, scout troops, and other nonprofit initiatives that require plant funding in order for their conservation landscaping plans to get off the ground. In the past 18 years, Unity Gardens has given out almost $500,000 to over 500 organizations in Anne Arundel County.
Unity Garden’s mission is to empower and educate diverse Anne Arundel County communities to create and sustain healthy ecological spaces that enhance life, one native garden at a time.
The following organizations helped us rise to that goal:
Annapolis High Courtyard Entrance
Annapolis
To develop two pollinator gardens in an underused courtyard area and remediate erosion areas and sediment runoff.
Carrollton Manor Community Club House Conservation Landscaping
Severna Park
To demonstrate the benefits of conservation landscaping and the use of native plants.
Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library
Annapolis
To restore an overgrown stormwater management area with natives.
Goshen Farm Wildlife Landscaping for Shallow Water Pond
Cape St. Claire
To create diverse and dense wildlife habitat on the downslopes a vernal pond.
Here We Grow Demonstration Garden, Annapolis Green
Annapolis
To enhance an urban demonstration garden that provides nectar, pollen, seeds, and food for local/native insects, birds, butterflies, and to show local gardeners that food and native flowers make beautiful “bed fellows.”
Jug Bay’s Rain Garden Revamp
Lothian
To fund the replanting of the current rain garden on Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary’s property with native plants.
Kol Shalom Storm Water Management and Erosion Control
Annapolis
To absorb and slow stormwater flowing down a slope on the property.
Lombardee Beach Community Park Native Garden
Glen Burnie
To address run-off onto Lombardee Circle by introducing native plants and shrubs that benefit birds and pollinators.
Poplar Ridge Improvement Association Bird and Butterfly Garden
Pasadena
To increase wildlife in the community, particularly the bird and butterfly populations.
St. Andrews by the Bay (SABB) Woodland Edge Restoration
Annapolis
To replant a wooded area full of invasives with native trees and shrubs.
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church Pollinator Garden
Annapolis
To install a pollinator garden to attract bees, butterflies, and birds.
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Hillside Stabilization with Natives
Annapolis
To replace native plants and add new ones to an existing sloped conservation landscape, to reduce erosion and stormwater runoff.
Serene Ravine Erosion Control & Restoration Planting
Cape St. Claire
To control erosion and restore habitat on a site leading to Lake Claire and the Magothy River.
