Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis Creates Habitat Gardening Connections
Emily Lazar (left) and Kim Richards (right), co-founders of Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis.
As co-founders of the Facebook group Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis, Emily Lazar and Kim Richards focus on connecting school gardeners, educators, and native plant enthusiasts to transform traditional schoolyards into vibrant outdoor learning spaces that support pollinators and other wildlife.
This month they participated in a conversation with the Melinda Vaughn School Pollinator Fund about the newly launched group and their vision for supporting the “wild” school gardening community in the Twin Cities.
Q: How would you describe Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis?
A: Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis is an online community of school gardeners – a gathering space where educators and volunteers can tell stories, share resources, ask questions, and support one another in the collective goal of connecting students with nature and schoolyard greening. If your school has or is curious about planting a pollinator garden, school forest, rain garden, pocket prairie, butterfly habitat, or any such “wild space,” then Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis is for you!
Q: What were the reasons for starting it?
A: Our story began in 2021, when we approached Lake Harriet Lower (grades K-2) in Minneapolis about starting a pollinator garden in a few overlooked large planters. The school was happy to have the help, and we began researching habitat gardening at schools. While we were surprised to find little information at the local level, we did what most school gardeners do -- dug in with what we had and crossed our fingers for good luck. Thanks to the many hands and minds that came together that spring, the school pollinator garden was planted and quickly became a beloved gathering space for students and pollinators.
We named our volunteer garden group “The Garden Team” and in a couple of short seasons expanded our program to Lake Harriet “Upper” (grades 3-5), adopted storm drains, planted trees, hosted workshops, rewilded the school rain garden, added an outdoor classroom, inspired teacher-led raised bed gardens, and gained an Instagram following for @LHCSGardenTeam that continues today. Through this success, we continued to feel like there was something missing – a way to share our experiences and grow as a larger school gardening community.
Nearly five years after breaking ground at Lake Harriet Lower, we launched Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis as an attempt to build the community of peers that we had always sought for ourselves to inspire real, tangible change across schoolyards in the Minneapolis metro.
Q: How did your backgrounds and experiences play a role in the group’s founding?
A: As it turns out, we have had many parallel experiences in life! We both grew up in Minnesota, are graduates of UW-Madison, and went on to serve with AmeriCorps. We both became hobby gardeners during COVID lockdowns and experienced the mental and physical benefits of connecting with nature. Our biggest asset wasn’t a formal background in gardening or environmental education; it came down to our attitudes. We are open to new possibilities, take failure as learning opportunities, and continue to be curious about the natural world around us.
We also like to dream big.
There are many successful schoolyard garden programs, and we like to imagine what would happen if we all came together. How might we be able to respond to the biggest challenges schoolyard gardens face -- maintaining gardens; creating succession plans when volunteers move from schools; and securing resources to help school communities access all the benefits that a pocket of nature provides.
A native pollinator garden in bloom at Lake Harriet Upper Elementary School.
Q: Who can join Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis?
A: Anyone involved in a schoolyard greening project, big or small, present or future! This includes parent volunteers, teachers, school staff, community members, grandparents, etc.
Q: Is the group solely focused in Minneapolis, or other cities/suburbs as well?
A: We invite anyone involved with schools in Minneapolis and first-ring suburbs such as St. Louis Park, Edina, Richfield, Columbia Heights, Richfield, Robbinsdale, etc. We are being intentional about keeping our community within a relatively restricted geographic area to foster sharing and easy collaboration, something that is more challenging to achieve in a larger geographic area. This is not a hard and fast rule, however, so if you are in St. Paul and want to check us out, please send us a request!
Q: What are the guidelines for people posting?
A: Guidelines for posting are listed on the main page, and we hope are common sense. No bullying, no soliciting. Be kind. Keep it real.
Q: What are your goals for Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis?
A: We remember the first growing season at Lake Harriet Lower feeling like one big experiment. It was thrilling to see what grew, what didn’t, how some kids squealed in fear at the sight of a bumble bee while others drew close, eager to watch. Emily remembers a moment while watering when a Monarch flitted over to a milkweed plant; it landed on a leaf, laid an egg, and then glided over to a nearby zinnia bloom for a long drink. Something clicked for her, “Wow. You plant and they really do come!” What an honor to have this magnificent Monarch journey all the way from Mexico and pick our little school pollinator garden to rest. Every season since, Monarchs are a staple of the pollinators we see in the schoolyard, along with other butterflies, bees, insects, and birds. Each pollinator is proof that even the smallest forms of life can find refuge in the middle of a bustling urban schoolyard with a little help and a lot of flowers.
This story exemplifies our greatest goal – to inspire schools to plant and maintain wild spaces. Even small projects, such as adding native flowers to a garden border, can significantly benefit pollinators by creating wildlife corridors like a patchwork quilt. The less distance a bumblebee, for example, needs to travel to search for food and shelter the higher its chances of survival.
We also want to foster more sharing between schoolyard gardens. Gardening naturally lends itself to sharing – harvesting seeds, splitting plants, and tackling the same problems. There are built in resources that we can tap into when we come together.
As Wild Schoolyards Minneapolis, we can support these goals by growing our membership and providing opportunities to come together by offering in-person workshops, roundtables, and garden tours. We are actively exploring ways to expand our capacity and evolve as a group.
Q: What school garden projects are you both currently working on?
A: This 2025/26 academic year we are both working to kickstart rewilding efforts in underutilized courtyard spaces. Kim is helping maintain and enhance the courtyard garden at Anthony Middle School in Minneapolis where her two kiddos attend, and Emily is in the early phases of planning a pollinator habitat at Countryside Elementary in Edina where two of her three kids attend. It’s certainly humbling to be knee deep in our own schoolyard projects and we look forward to leaning into Wild Schoolyards along the way!
We also continue to stay connected with Lake Harriet Elementary, our first school garden. It’s really satisfying to see the perennials, such as milkweed and asters, maturing and moving around as they love to do. The students still plant zinnias and sunflowers each spring before summer break, which then are in full bloom when they return to school in the fall. There’s always an assortment of painted rocks that come and go. The butterflies seem more numerous than ever! It’s a great feeling to know that this garden continues to live on.
Kim Richards in front of a pollinator garden at Lake Harriet Lower Elementary School she helped plant as part of a volunteer garden group in the spring of 2021.
Emily Lazar in front of the pollinator garden at Lake Harriet Lower Elementary School, now a beloved gathering space for students.
Q: What advice do you have for teams wanting to start a school pollinator garden?
A: “Go for it!!”
Adding pollinator plants to a schoolyard creates new opportunities for student and family engagement, it offers teachers outdoor learning enrichment, and more often than not it becomes a focal point for the school. Seeing the bright blooms of a pollinator garden adds personality and is a point of pride for the school community. It’s an act of love. In our experience, plants bring people together. Few people want to start a project but many people want to jump on board once a project is started. Start small and you will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your planting project will drum up positive support and literally grow!
As for some practical advice, the most important thing to consider is where your water source is! Dragging around hundreds of feet of hose is no fun, trust us. Oh, and aside from identifying a school staff member or two who will champion your project from the inside of the building, don’t forget to take the time to build a rapport with your school groundskeeper. Groundskeepers and custodial staff members usually have invaluable insights that school administrators do not. And of course, please post your project on Wild Schoolyards! We want to learn from you and hear your stories.
Q: What are some of the resources you’d recommend to school gardeners, educators, and school garden volunteers?
A: If we were to list our favorite resources for school pollinator gardens the first that comes to mind is of course the Melinda Vaughn School Pollinator Fund. (We promise we’re not just saying that to win brownie points with this interview!) They do an exemplary job of providing school-centric resources for Minnesota teachers and community members interested in school gardening. We're particularly fond of their comprehensive “Pollinator Gardening at Your School: A Basic Guide to Getting Started” download. Other groups that come to mind include U of M Extension Master Gardener volunteers who are always eager to answer questions and assist with school gardens; Wild Ones is a nonprofit teeming with information for your native habitat and rewilding efforts including the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant and in-person support from local chapter members. The Jeffers Foundation is another favorite; they have a Garden 4 Every School grant for new projects, as well as year-round environmental sciences workshops for teachers. For any school project, we also recommend reaching out to your watershed district for grants or signage, county sustainability and environmental services for free compost and/or grants, neighborhood committees for summer watering volunteers, and the Wild Schoolyards community for advice on everything in between!
Q: How have you seen school pollinator gardens have a positive impact on students and/or school communities?
A: A pollinator garden doubles as a living classroom for hands-on learning about soil sciences, food webs, wildlife conservation, pollination, weather, ecosystems, parts of a plant, lifecycle of a butterfly, mathematics (e.g., measuring growth over time, symmetry of a leaf, etc.), making predictions, and so much more.
Students gain leadership experience and build a sense of belonging at their school when they design, plant, and care for a garden. Pollinator gardens make excellent flex spaces for reading, art, emotional regulation, and picnic lunches. They often provide a platform for community partnerships and family engagement that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Pollinator gardens honor cultural connections. They clean our water, sink carbon, build healthy soil, and provide much needed refuge for our bees, butterflies, and other living creatures that depend on this habitat for survival. Schools with green spaces such as gardens see significant improvements in student focus and test scores.
Witnessing children in a pollinator garden discover a swallowtail caterpillar, squeal in delight as they crack open a milkweed seedpod, marvel at how soft a bumblebee is, take pride in measuring how tall they are compared to a late summer sunflower, it’s easy to see that a school pollinator garden is an invitation to reconnect with nature and share a moment of wonder before returning to our overscheduled lives on and off the school grounds.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about the group or school pollinator gardening?
A: You don’t have to be an expert to lead a schoolyard project. Start small and see where it leads. Magic awaits!