Funding Native Plant Gardens

How to Find Funding for Your Native Plant Garden

Restoring landscapes with native plants can get expensive. Luckily, there are many funding sources for households, schools, communities, businesses, and congregations.

These funding sources most often take the form of rebates, but you may also be able to find grants, tax incentives, or even free and discounted native plant opportunities.

What is a rebate?

A rebate is a cashback or refund for certain purchases or actions you take. It can be provided by various sources and may be offered as a flat rate, a dollar amount per square foot, or even a percentage of your installation costs. Rebates are a great option for residential households doing native plant gardening.

Sustainable Garden Rebate Database

We've aggregated some relevant resources for your convenience. These resources are intended to supplement NWF’s wildlife-friendly gardening programs and initiatives. Please note, NWF is not affiliated with any of these initiatives or funding opportunities.

Use our rebate and incentive database below! You can filter results by state, country, and even eligible recipients.

Please Note
We work to keep this database as up-to-date and comprehensive as possible. All information is taken from the official program websites and may not represent the most recent or accurate information available.

If you know of a funding program that is not represented here or notice an inaccuracy, please tell us!

How to Save Money When Planting Native

Start native plants from seed.
Seeds tend to be much cheaper than purchasing plugs or established plants. Just make sure you are aware of the germination needs of your seeds. Many native seeds require specific temperatures or moisture levels to germinate.

Create a water-efficient garden to save on water bills.
Using xeriscaping techniques or creating a rain garden can help to minimize the amount of watering you need to do. This can lower your water bill over time!

Let nature create free fertilizer and mulch for you.
Using the fallen leaf layer as a natural mulch and composting yard and food waste to generate natural fertilizer can be great ways to save money and reduce waste.

Avoid pesticides and other costly yard treatments.
Not only can these pesticide treatments harm wildlife, but they can also be expensive.

Typically, traditional grants are well suited to non-profit organizations, communities, or larger institutions. Many do not apply to residential households or individuals. Instead of looking into traditional grants, we recommend that household gardeners look for rebates, which can be offered by a wide variety of sources including local governments, organizations, utility providers, and more.

There are many rebates for taking water-conserving actions like creating a water garden, replacing turf grass with drought tolerant plants, or using xeriscaping techniques. Remember, even if a rebate doesn’t specifically call out native plants or wildlife gardening in its title, the funding may still cover wildlife friendly actions like planting native. This is because native plants provide many more ecological benefits outside of just supporting wildlife. For example, many native plants are drought tolerant and help manage stormwater runoff. For this reason, many water conservation rebates include planting native species as one of the actions that can earn you a rebate.

The answer varies. Some funding opportunities require you to apply for funding before you start any renovations. They may even ask for photos of your landscape or information about your garden plans. These opportunities often specify that already completed projects are not eligible for reimbursement.

Meanwhile, other funding opportunities may offer funding that can apply to previously completed projects.

It is always a good idea to read up on the funding opportunities you intend to apply for before you start your garden projects to make sure you are meeting the funding requirements.

If there are no local funding opportunities, you can:

Look at state-wide or national funding sources, which can help fill the gaps where regional programs are sparse.
Connect with regional local plant groups or local leaders to find out what initiatives might be available or underway.
Connect with other gardeners and see how you can work together to save costs by sharing tools or doing a seed swap.

This is a commonly asked question, but unfortunately there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The cost depends on the variables of your garden, like its size and current state. It can also be impacted by the gardening choices you make and how much of the process you are doing yourself, versus hiring outside help to complete.

Plus, it can be hard to quantify how much money restoring your landscape may save you in the long run. Native plants often require less watering, and you may be able to move away from costly gardening practices like purchasing fertilizer, pesticides, and mulch. Turning your garden into a native plant habitat is an investment that can pay for itself over the years!

When restoring your garden, we suggest viewing it as a marathon, not a sprint. You can start by creating habitat in one area of your yard and slowly expand out over the years. This helps to spread the cost out and ensure that you take the time to see what works in your garden and adjust your plans accordingly.

Some of the rebates and incentives in the database can apply to communities or organizations. You can filter results in the eligible applicant dropdown.

As a community or organization, you also have the added benefit of being able to apply for many traditional grants or even fundraising for donations. See this resource here for more information.

Authorship Note

Our educational resources like this one are written by NWF staff experts, who have both academic and practical experience in habitat restoration. All resources go through a rigorous science review process with our in-house scientists and receive regular updates to keep them current with the latest science. If you have any questions, please reach out to us.