Hi guys, welcome to my mini urban garden in St Louis, Missouri, zone 7a.
Reddit compilation of native garden grants nationwide: https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/s/ynM9HhxYJH
St Louis Rainscaping Grant: https://msdprojectclear.org/what-we-do/rainscaping/small-grants/
What is Alley Asters: https://alleyasters.org/
Follow me on the Instagrams: https://www.instagram.com/dianathecatgardener
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Intro
1:05 My native flower garden
1:27 How to get funding for a native or rainscaping garden
3:04 Why plant native plants instead of non-native plants?
5:45 Nationwide grants for native or rainscaping gardens
6:27 How to apply for the St Louis Rainscaping Grant
10:17 How my native garden became an oasis
12:04 Ways to do native garden without a grant for free/cheap
—-
I replaced my front lawn with a native flower garden completely for FREE using a city grant! Today I’m sharing how you can apply for rainscaping grants (350+ programs nationwide!), why native plants are superior to regular landscaping, and how to start a native garden even WITHOUT a grant.
💰 HOW I GOT $4,000 FOR FREE:
The St Louis Rainscaping Small Grant Program
Covers rain gardens, rain barrels, OR lawn replacement with natives
Max $4,000 reimbursement
Timeline: Apply by January for spring planting, June for fall planting
🌱 WHY NATIVE PLANTS?
Deep root systems capture water better than grass (prevents flooding!)
Support local biodiversity and pollinators!
Less watering, less maintenance, no fertilizer needed
Never mow lawn again!
Hardier, easier to grow than non-natives
Blooms change every month (year-round color)
📋 MY APPLICATION PROCESS:
Hired Pretty City Gardens (landscaper on grant’s approved list)
Landscape design fee: $600 (included in grant budget)
They chose plants for me
I killed grass with wood chips over winter (saved labor costs!)
Installation took 1 day
120 plants planted, including a serviceberry
Submitted receipts + photos, reimbursed within 1-2 months
🌸 YEAR 1 RESULTS:
Immediate blooms starting in spring
Different flowers every month
Way more pollinators & wildlife than grass ever had
Year 3-4 is when it fully fills in (neighbor examples shown!)
💚 HOW TO START WITHOUT A GRANT:
Facebook native plant swap groups (FREE divisions!)
My neighbor’s Alley Asters program
Native plants are naturally low-cost & low-maintenance
Perfect for anyone wanting a beautiful, eco-friendly, low-maintenance alternative to grass lawns!
#nativeplants #nativegarden #rainscaping #lawnreplacement #nativeflowers #pollinators #biodiversity #urbangarden #stlouisgarden #ecofriendly #lowmaintenanceplants
—-
Music Credits:
Andrew Applepie – Almost Winter | Copyright Free Background MusicMusic provided by Copyright Free Background Music – Audio Library.Video Link: youtu.be/1LUjkoAvrK8
In My Dreams By LAKEY INSPIRED : https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired
PHOTO CREDITS
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Monarch_caterpillar_on_common_milkweed_%2841823429020%29.jpg
USFWS Midwest Region from United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“ruby-throated hummingbird on cardinal flower” by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, CC BY 2.0
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Stormwater_Diagram.svg
Rowan Andrews, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Copyright: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Switchgrass_roots.jpg
Dehaan, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
19 Comments
Reddit compilation of native garden grants nationwide: https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/s/ynM9HhxYJH
St Louis Rainscaping Grant: https://msdprojectclear.org/what-we-do/rainscaping/small-grants/
What is Alley Asters: https://alleyasters.org/
*typo correction: the prickly pear is the native CACTUS of missouri!
Those native front gardens are beautiful! I really appreciate your concise, detailed explanations of everything you do. You are an excellent teacher. Happy Gardening!
Great stuff. I'm all about planting native plants! Thanks for letting people know about that grant too.
This was great! I did a Google search and learned that my state does this too.
Looking wonderful! I love that your city does that type of grant. That's awesome.
Cat gardener? Instant subscribe. They are all such cuties!
I'm getting "Page not found" on the reddit link.
Another local native garden channel?! So excited!
I literally just posted a video about my experience with this grant! We're doing most of the work ourselves, and I'm documenting the process on my channel. My focus is on prairie plants. Subscribed 🙂
Great job. Very educational and inspiring.
I LOVE this! Go St. Louis! Hopefully other cities with follow example.
Ooo, gorgeous! Thank you for sharing this process! And thank you for sharing photos of your neighbors' native landscaping, because in those I found the inspiration for my own front slope. 😀
I say this with kindness because maybe you don't know, but outdoor cats wreck havoc on ecosystems by decimating bird and wildlife populations. this is extremely antithetical to native gardening. you're just baiting wildlife to show up and be a dinner at this point. please keep your cats inside.
I live in the PNW in a more rural county, and even here you can find the local Conservation District looking to help improve private property for the environment. Due to a seasonal stream on my property, they had a grant that allowed them to cut back my swaths of invasive Himalayan blackberry and re-plant with nearly a hundred diverse riparian forest system plants and trees, at no cost to me!
I deeply appreciate everyone around the country bringing attention to the numerous programs in place to improve our world, little by little. Thanks for the wonderful video!
It's great that you had a positive experience with all this. In Canada we have a home energy efficiency grant program that has a similar intent but is more or less a scam in implementation.
I love this I wonder if they do something like that were I live we need more beneficial plants for the ladybugs hummingbirds praying mantises stuff like that ❤ this i hope more people do this I also want to plant some native plants for birds
I love seeing examples of these programs being implemented. Here in Minnesota our program is called Lawns to Legumes, I haven't applied for a grant but I learned so much just from reading through the resources on their website!
It’s great that your city is encouraging this. In some places people are having legal battles with their cities over replacing grass with wildflowers.
thank you! this is the info I needed. I thought I was too late for this year, but the June application for fall is perfect! I also have a neighbor a few years ahead of me for advice