Spring 2026 Lawns To Legumes Grant Program – Applications Open June, 2025

Lawns to Legumes is a planting for pollinators grant program that Blue Thumb facilitates with the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. Any Minnesotan can apply to receive reimbursement for native planting projects and support at-risk pollinators like the monarch butterfly and rusty patched bumble bee. Each spring and fall, a new cohort of participants gets selected to take part in the program. The Lawns to Legumes individual grant program for Fall 2025 closed on May 15, and awards will be announced by email in mid-June. 

Applications will open again in mid-June 2025 for Spring 2026 applications. If you want to be notified when applications open again, you can fill out the interest form at the bottom of this page: https://bluethumb.org/lawns-to-legumes/apply/.

The Lawns To Legumes Program is leaving a deep-rooted legacy. Dozens of acres of native pollinator gardens and pollinator turf were installed using grants from Lawns To Legumes. Hundreds of people have attended workshops led by Blue Thumb and other conservation-minded groups like Alt Lawns of Richfield and Bloomington, Wild Ones, and Pollinator Friendly Alliance, to name a few. Thousands more homeowners have been inspired to go ahead without a grant to plant or seed their own projects and this demand is only increasing. Native plant nurseries have been rapidly increasing their inventories the last few years and still struggle to meet demand.

Why are Native Plants Important?

Native plants are ecological miracle workers. They possess extremely deep root systems (think 7 – 20 ft deep!). They create those roots from the CO2 they breathe from the air. CO2 is a major greenhouse gas, and native plants sequester literal tons of carbon per acre in their roots and surrounding soil. Plants use photosynthesis, a process using CO2, water, and sunlight, to create the carbohydrates they consume. Plants overproduce these carbohydrates by 40% and store the excess in the soil around their roots. Beneficial, symbiotic soil microbes eat these carbs and reproduce at amazing rates, and they use carbon to create structure in the soil. This structure creates space for roots, air, and water to penetrate deeper and wider into an increasingly fertile and healthy soil. With this kind of infrastructure, nutrient and biological resources, these plants flourish and function well, performing their ecological duties. 

Plants’ ecological duties are our benefits. Water is infiltrated through soil and root structure instead of running off and carrying contaminants into our lakes and streams causing algae blooms, some that are toxic and other water quality issues. 

Carbon is sequestered through the increased root mass and soil biology and our atmosphere is cleansed of excess CO2, reversing climate change while creating healthy soil.

Pollinators thrive in the diversity and endangered species of plants, pollinators and wildlife return to areas where they have been missing for decades. Ecological restoration experts report seeing plant species that were not seeded or planted in project areas suddenly appearing after 7 – 10 years. The same with pollinators and wildlife. It’s kind of a “if you plant it they will come” scenario.

What Can You Do?

You can take action. Seed part or all of your turf to native or low maintenance grasses with native flowers to create a pollinator friendly turf. Plant a patch of native plants that are designed so that several species of blooms happen throughout the entire growing season, along with grasses and sedges to provide habitat, even into the winter. Your yard can become an oasis of ecological restoration.

   Not sure what to do or overwhelmed with all the different choices. Contact Bob Dahm to get help creating a plan and get the resources to make it happen.

Links:

MN Board of Water and Soil Resources   https://bwsr.state.mn.us/

Grants, technical and info resources

Pollinator Friendly Alliance    https://www.pollinatorfriendly.org/

Technical and practical info resources

Metro Blooms   https://metroblooms.org/

Blue Thumb education resources, information

Wild Ones   https://wildones.org/chapters/minnesota/

Conservation group with lots of resources

Altlawns of Richfield and Bloomington Facebook Group   https://www.facebook.com/groups/altlawns/