Applications Open for Unity Gardens Fall Scholarships

Unity Gardens is currently accepting proposals through August 1, 2024, for native gardening projects in Anne Arundel County. Unity Gardens awards grants to homeowner associations, houses of worship, and local nonprofits to complete citizen-led conservation projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These projects include rain gardens, erosion control projects, and pollinator gardens, all using trees, shrubs, perennials, and grasses native to Maryland.

This round of grants offers Unity Gardens grants of up to $3,000 for native tree and shrub installations, in addition to standard grants of up to $1,000 for native perennials. This round of grants we are prioritizing applications with native tree and shrub installations.

Eligible applicants must plan and create a budget for a potential project and then submit an application online. The Unity Gardens website has information on how to plan a garden and where to purchase native plants. In addition, Unity Gardens volunteers will also meet with potential grantees to discuss their ideas and provide advice on next steps. Those interested can visit unitygardens.org . The fall application deadline is August 1.

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

Unity Gardens is an Anne Arundel County-based nonprofit organization that supports community partnership building through its grassroots grant program. Each year since

In 2003, Unity Gardens provided grants to schools, religious organizations, homeowners associations, scout groups and other non-profit organizations that needed plant funding to get their landscaping projects off the ground. Over the past 20 years, Unity Gardens has provided over $600,000 to over 600 organizations in Anne Arundel County.

Unity Garden’s mission is to empower and educate diverse communities in Anne Arundel County to create and maintain healthy ecological spaces that enhance lives, one native garden at a time.