2020 Budding Botanist Grant Winners
Congratulations to the twelve schools selected as 2020 Budding Botanist grantees!
The Klorane Botanical Foundation is committed to supporting programs to teach respect for the environment and protect nature through the preservation of plant species and biodiversity. Designed to further their mission, the Budding Botanist Grant will help our youngest citizens learn about plants, explore their world and inspire them to take care of the life they discover in their local ecosystems.
The 2020 Budding Botanist grant awards twelve grant packages to schools across the United States. Three schools will be awarded a $2,250 package. Nine schools will be awarded a $1,250 package.
Top Awarded Programs
A garden plan for FAIR Pilgrim Lane School
FAIR Pilgrim Lane School (Plymouth, MN)
FAIR Pilgrim Lane School will be installing a brand new garden that will include raised beds for heirloom vegetables varieties, 300 square feet of native Minnesota plants to support pollinators, assorted native berry and nut bushes, and a spiral herb garden
MS 915 (Brooklyn, NY)
MS 915, in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park horticulturalists, is creating a “natural oasis” in the heart of their urban community. The space will feature native trees and shrubs, a designated space for food crops, and an outdoor classroom.
Northeast High School (Philadelphia, PA)
Participants in a year-long agriculture course part of Northeast High School’s Natural Resource Management program plan to implement a student-designed aquaponic system.
Awarded Programs
Students at Imago Dei Middle School
Austin-East Magnet High School (Knoxville, TN)
Austin-East Magnet High School’s comprehensive new garden will include a food forest, composting operation, seasonal ponding rain garden, native shade garden, raised beds, and a teaching area, all surrounded by a border of perennial pollinators.
Central Junior High (Springdale, AR)
Students in Central Junior High’s agriculture program will be working on a series of advanced programs to implement a biogas digester and ultralow irrigation system in their garden space.
Imago Dei Middle School (Tucson, AZ)
Imago Dei Middle School is excited to add aquaponics and hydroponics units to their garden programming.
New Road School of Ocean County (Lakewood, NJ)
New Road School hopes to double the size of their garden, install a polycarbonate greenhouse, and integrate an aquaponic system into their programming.
The garden at Pa-'auilo Elementary and Middle School
Pa’auilo Elementary and Middle School (Pa’auilo, HI)
Pa’auilo Elementary and Middle School looks to revitalize an old greenhouse, transforming it into an outdoor classroom space that will accommodate all grade levels participating in garden-based programming.
Red Cloud Indian School (Pine Ridge, SD)
Students at Red Cloud Indian School are working towards the creation of a school farm with the goal of providing produce to their cafeteria and student-led farmers market, while simultaneously promoting a connection to and knowledge of Lakota culture.
Siren School District (Siren, WI)
The Siren School Garden will be focusing on acquiring season extension infrastructure and fencing to protect their raised bed garden from animal predation and to prolong the growing season.
Walnut Hill Elementary (Omaha, NE)
In partnership with a community-based nonprofit, Walnut Hill Elementary has plans to install raised beds and grow an assortment of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and native pollinators, a process that will be intricately connected to classroom learning.
Gardeners at Windsor Elementary
Windsor Elementary (Columbia, SC)
Windsor Elementary’s new garden space will native trees, grasses, and shrubs, as well as an assortment of houses for nesting birds commonly found in their area.