Minnesota residents are eligible to apply for Lawns to Legumes cost-share funding of up to $400 to create pollinator habitat in their yards. The application deadline for the Fall 2024 Lawns to Legumes Individual Support program is May 15, 2024. Grant recipients will be notified in late May.
Lawns to Legumes is no longer rolling over applications from previous funding rounds. If you previously applied for the program and were not awarded a grant, you will need to reapply to be considered for Fall 2024 funding.
Please note that applying for Lawns to Legumes cost-share funding does not guarantee you will receive funding. If your application is awarded funding, it will be in the form of reimbursement. We will work with awardees unable to afford the upfront cost of a project to find a way to still participate in the program.
Lawns to Legumes uses a lottery system to select grant recipients. This system gives additional weight to applicants who live in priority habitat areas for the rusty-patched bumblebee and other at risk pollinators, and factors in geographic distribution to ensure all regions of the state are represented. Environmental justice and equity factors are also included in the ranking system to ensure that low income, minority and tribal communities are represented and prioritized among awarded recipients.
To give as many people as possible the opportunity to start a project, Lawns to Legumes can only award one grant per individual. However, your city or local conservation or watershed district may have similar native planting grant opportunities! Our Partner Grants page lists some of those opportunities.
Lawns to Legumes provides many free helpful resources on creating pollinator habitat. You can check our Lawns to Legumes page and the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources website. You will find information on projects like pocket gardens, pollinator lawns, and meadows and planting trees and shrubs for pollinators, how to design your project, and more.
Lawns to Legumes comes through the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. Blue Thumb is BWSR’s partner for the individual support part of the program.