saving  nature STARTS IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD

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MS4B program areas emphasize hands-on, project-based learning in the outdoors!
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​In the summer Youth Environmental Entrepreneurship Program (YEEP), college interns coach high school teens age 15-19 to build a business where they are paid to learn about the benefits of native plants and then sell and install them for customers. See below Why Native Plants? and Why Plant Meadows? above. 

​Through meadowscaping, we empower participants to become stewards of the Earth ​and to take charge of their future. 

summer YEEP 2020 opportunities for college students -- $15/hour

SUMMER YEEP 2020 OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS--$12.75/hour (INFORMATION WILL BE AVAILABLE aPRIL 10, 2020)

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Why Native Plants?
​Doug Tallamy's ​"Gardening for Life." 

Native plants were growing in this area before the 1500s when European colonists brought other plants here. Native insects evolved with these plants and can subsist only on those specific indigenous flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees.

​​This is what we at Meadowscaping for Biodiversity (MS4B) have been teaching students and adults since 2014! Everyone can do their part, by planting native plants in their yards, business properties and public parks.


MS4B Boston Globe story ​

----Jean and Barbara

​get outDOORS!!
(keep a safe distance!)

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​Tips for boosting your overall mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.
 
During this unprecedented time, everyone needs to make adjustments to their schedules. 
 
What to do?

Close your eyes and take a deep breath.

Help your neighbors — at a smart distance.

In addition to following the best advice for protecting your own health and the health of your family and community (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html), there are other steps you can take for your wellbeing. 
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Be thankful. Appreciate what you have, including time to be with your family and/or do things differently.

Get Outdoors!!

​Research shows that if you spend too much time indoors, your Vitamin D levels go down…and so does your mood. So do yourself a favor. Get outdoors!
 
Gardening to Support a Healthy Environment - Ask us how to plant a functional garden for the beneficial insects and birds that we are losing due to over-development, pesticide use, and climate change.
 
​Here’s a list of ideas that boost Vitamin N (for Nature) for you and your family. 
Explore the fresh outdoors:
Your neighborhood:

If you have always walked to/from your house using the same route, shake up the routine and try a new street.

Play a game with the kids: How many yellow houses do you see? Who has something fun on their lawn? Are the trees budding out yet? Let your child pick the route. Or, play “walk this way” and walk like different animals.  

Your own backyard, or close to your home:

Pick a “sit” spot: Find a special place in nature: a tree, a brook, a field, a garden… and then observe and admire it over time.

​Go daily, weekly, monthly and see how it changes. Draw it, photograph it or write about it. What living creatures — birds, chipmunks, insects — visit it. You’ll be amazed at how it grows and changes!

Get creative. Build fairy houses, nature sculptures or a fort.  On the ground are sticks, leaves, pinecones, rocks. Put them together and what do you see?

Dig in the soil. It’s too early to plant outdoors, but you can still gently explore what’s under those leaves.

Make a kite.  (https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Kite-2/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8cI7EN97oU

​​​Make seed balls. (https://www.weareteachers.com/outdoor-science/ )

• Belmont
• Cambridge
• Newton
• Waltham 

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YEEP PROGRAM COLLAGE ​SUMMER 2019

​HIGH SCHOOL TEENS SELL NATIVE PLANTS

​Buy beautiful, hardy, drought-tolerant perennial native plants from teens in YEEP to help them gain 21st century career-readiness skills and work experience. You'll increase biodiversity in your backyard and build environmental resilience in your community.

Click on Plant Services tab above to catch a sneak peak at some of the flowers, shrubs, grasses, and ferns we'll be pre-selling soon. Call 781-209-0052 or email info@meadowmaking.org for more information. 

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It is our goal to make our YEEP program continue to be the best. ​Please contribute anything you can!

​DONATE TO MS4B

​HELP FUND OUR ESSENTIAL PROGRAMS

• ​Curriculum development and fun, engaging activities
• Educate citizen scientists and stewards of the Earth to try to resolve challenges to the environment and human society.
• Participants repurpose monocultural turf lawn into meadows--productive, attractive ecosystems gardens with native flowers, shrubs, and grasses
• Increase biodiversity, pollinator and wildlife habitat to build community resilience in the time of rapidly changing climate

To donate to Meadowscaping, please click on donate button above. You will land on the donation page for the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, our fiscal sponsor. Fill out the form. Under PROGRAM, choose Fiscal Sponsored Group; then type in our name MS4B in the next entry block. Finish the form. Click on DONATION Button on top right. The program will send you an automatic receipt after your pledge has been received.

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All abuzz...a summer of growth

Please check out MS4B Summer 2019 Poster Collage in left column. For some other photos from last summer, see photo gallery in About Us section.

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Waltham high school climate cafe

simmons college sustainability club