Wild Ones Mountain Laurel Chapter
CONGRATULATIONS TO SEEDS FOR EDUCATION GRANT AWARDEES!
The Mountain Laurel Chapter congratulates the Connecticut recipients of 2025 Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education grants! It was exciting to hear that 2 of the 20 projects funded in the latest cycle of this competitive national grants program came from our state. These are the first awards to CT projects in five years.
We can’t wait to see these native garden projects come to fruition!
2025 SFE Awardee: Sandy Point Neighborhood Association, West Haven
Project Leaders: Kathie Hebert/Robin Parsons
The grant awarded to the Sandy Point Neighborhood Association (“SPNA”) will be used to populate a 1400 square foot area at the entrance to the Savin Rock Community School in West Haven with a wide variety of native plants. The garden is designed to offer students a range of learning opportunities from winter sowing seeds and planting plugs, to watching berries and seeds ripen, to learning about host plants and observing the insects and birds that native plants support. This SPNA-sponsored project also aims to involve parents and other residents of the neighborhood in maintaining the garden so as to extend awareness of the importance of native plants to the broader community. The garden was designed with the input of the West Haven Native Plant Initiative and will include native strawberries, blueberries, a wide variety of native grasses and flowering perennials and Connecticut’s native witch hazel tree Hamamelis virginiana.
2025 SFE Awardee: East Hampton Public Library, East Hampton
Project Leaders: Catie Resor/Andrea Simmons
Two local gardeners and native plant enthusiasts developed their winning proposal in cooperation with the East Hampton Public Library. The grant will support installation of a native pollinator garden at the library. A community “planting day” is planned for May 10th to encourage patrons of all ages to come out and learn about the project while helping to plant native perennials. The East Hampton Library has been an enthusiastic supporter of the project, planning garden-themed programs for youth to educate children about native butterflies, birds, and insects and the habitats that support them. Once established, the library hopes to use the garden as an outdoor teaching space for story times and exploration.