Yard by Yard Grant Program
Franklin Conservation District (FCD), through a grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, is partnering with communities in Franklin County to support pollinators, improve soil health, and beautify our county with native plants by converting mowed spaces into native plant gardens and meadows.
Current Projects
Municipal Partner Projects
FCD has partnered with Charlemont, Deerfield, Leyden, and Sunderland. Each town has selected formerly mowed spaces that have been converted into native plant gardens or meadows.
- Hawlemont Elementary School’s 5th and 6th-grade H.A.Y. program students installed a 1,400 sq.ft. native garden on its grounds.
- Deerfield selected a dry field outside of town on Upper Road for conversion into a native plant meadow, and the municipal section of Bloody Brook bordering the elementary school, was chosen for riparian stabilization using native plants.
- Leyden town officials decided to convert some of the lawn at the town office building, and the Robertson Memorial Library expanded its existing pollinator garden with the addition of native plants.
- Colrain selected the hillside adjacent to the centrally located Veteran’s memorial. The large garden boasts a variety of shrubs that are host plants (nurseries) to numerous pollinators and herbaceous perennials that provide nutritious pollen and nectar all season for many species of native pollinators.
- Sunderland Elementary School selected three sites on its campus where native plants are now growing. The formal beds near the building and the restored meadow illustrate the versatility and beauty of native plants.
Municipal Projects In Development
- Shutesbury is planning to include native plants in the landscape of its new library.
- Bernardston is in the process of gaining approval for a pond-side garden adjacent to the senior center.
Opportunities for Residents
Residents of Franklin County can complete the consultation interest form to request a free one-hour design consultation and a starter set of native plants to convert your own lawn space! Be sure to attend your the educational workshops this winter for free materials and fun bonuses to help with your own project.
What if your town isn’t participating?
We are seeking partnerships with more Franklin County towns. If you would like to help bring this program to your town, please email the District.
Winter Education Series
Join us January – March 2025 for our winter workshop series — read the session descriptions and register here.
Past Workshops
Lawns Into Meadows Author Talk
December 2, 2023
2:00-4:00PM at the Leyden Town Offices, 7 Brattleboro Rd. in Leyden
Lawns Into Meadows talk by local author, native plant expert, and landscape designer, Owen Wormser, will inform us about how we can transform the deadzone of the modern lawn into an ecological contributor to pollinator and soil health and resilience.
Adventures in Native Plant Gardening for Beginners
March 17, 2024, 2 – 4 PM at the Leyden Town Offices, 7 Brattleboro Rd. in Leyden and
April 20, 2024, 11AM-12PM at the Griswold Memorial Library, 12 Main Rd. in Colrain
What’s good? What’s bad? Does that insect sting? What is that cool butterfly? Three years after slowly planting native plants in her own field, she has some answers to these questions. Jocelyn Demuth is the proprietor of Checkerspot Farm, a native plant nursery in Colrain, MA named after an elusive butterfly. Last year the farm’s namesake returned to the native plant meadow attached to the farm. Jocelyn will share the ways that you can create space for and identify some of these interesting creatures who are the foundations of our ecosystems.
Native Plants Education Series
As part of our Lawn Conversion grant program, FCD offers an annual native plants education series featuring local experts to help you get started in your own landscape.
Jocelyn Demuth will take us for a stroll around her meadow, which is still abuzz in September. Come see what’s happening, meet some new-to-you native plants, and learn what to do with your own garden or meadow once the season ends.
Native Plant Meadow and Pollinator
Walk and Talk
with Amy Pulley of Wing and a Prayer Nursery
August 5, 2023 8:30-10:30 am
Cummington, MA
Join Amy Pulley at her native plant nursery, Wing and a Prayer, for a walk in the meadow to experience the late summer blooms and busy pollinators in search of pollen and nectar. Amy will give us a tour of her meadow plantings and speak about the interdependent relationships between native plants and pollinating insects. More than a morning walk, this walk and talk is for those of us who want to know why native plants have become a hot topic. It’s also for those of us who are following the science and want to be part of the solution right in our very own yards and communities. It is also for those of us who just want to spend some time amidst the flowers and the creatures that visit them. We hope you will be delighted by what you see, and encouraged to enhance wildlife habitat in your own landscape.
Residents of the following communities, mark your calendar for these upcoming launch events!
- Deerfield – April 8, 2023
- Leyden – Dec. 2, 2023
- Charlemont – Spring 2024 (Date TBA)