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Habitat Creation Challenge

Wild Visions

We’ve got a wild vision - for a biodiverse future.

This spring, Garden for Wildlife is challenging local university students to create wildlife gardens throughout the DC Metro area. These gardens will help to make our city more habitable for humans and wildlife alike. You design the garden, we’ll provide the plants.
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Guidelines
Lines of Flight
Awards
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OVERVIEW

An Opportunity for Students to Transform the Urban Environment

Wild Visions Habitat Creation Challenge invites students to imaginatively transform DC's urban environment—making it more habitable, more beautiful, and more alive. This challenge is a great opportunity for students to meaningfully intervene in the biodiversity crisis, and to gain experience carrying out a community earth-care project.

STUDENTS: We invite university students and clubs throughout the DMV to participate in the Wild Visions Challenge. 

WHO | STUDENTS: We invite university students and clubs throughout the DMV to participate in the Wild Visions Challenge. 

WHAT | CREATE GARDENS: Students will create publicly accessible native gardens on campus or in the surrounding community. 

WHEN | THIS SPRING: Gardens will be developed throughout the spring semester and planted from April 20-28. 

WHERE | ACROSS THE DMV: Gardens can be planted on or off campus, provided they are accessible to the public.

WHY | FOR THE LIVING PLANET: Biodiversity everywhere is collapsing. In the last 50 years, we’ve lost almost 70% of global wildlife populations. Yet life is, by its very nature, resilient, and it will respond to our efforts at regeneration with abundance. Scientists and land protectors everywhere are calling for rapid, widespread biodiversity renewal to heal our broken ecosystems and preserve the integrity of the living systems that sustain us. This work must happen at the local level, as it necessarily involves a reinvestment into our relationship with place - with our bioregions, food webs and communities.

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Let's Get Started!

Follow these three steps to bring your garden to life through the Wild Visions Habitat Creation Challenge! 

February 17th

1. Register for the Challenge

Click the link below and fill out the form to sign up by February 17, 2024!

Sign up is now closed!

February - March 25th

2. Plan & Design Your Garden

We've got all the resources you need to realize your Wild Vision in our Garden Design Workbook. Fill it out and submit by March 25, 2024.

April 20th - 28th

3. Plant Natives & Celebrate!

Plant your garden between April 20th - 28th. We look forward to celebrating together at the Planty Awards Ceremony on April 28, 2024!

Let's get planning! You have this much time to fill out and submit your Garden Design Workbook!

Challenge Guidelines

  • Gardens must be planted in a publicly accessible location.

  • Gardens should receive full to partial sunlight.

  • We recommend a 20 x 20ft site to accommodate 150 native plants. Or 10 x 40ft, 100 x 4ft (sidewalk), etc. 

  • Off-campus gardens should be designed with community input, ideally in partnership with a community organization.

  • Gardens must be maintained for 5 years. Students will submit a maintenance plan when they order their plant donations from Garden for Wildlife.

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gfw-students-wild-visions-lines-of-flight

Lines of Flight 

Native gardens are much more than a bunch of plants in the ground - they are gathering spaces of all sorts of species, including butterflies, birds and Homo sapiens. They are also sites for experimentation and reflection, monuments of a thriving future that we may begin to bring into being today. We encourage students to dream big and incorporate practices and elements into their designs that elevate their gardens into multi-species sanctuary. 

We'd love to see these gardens populated with labyrinths, meditative spaces, bird houses, water features, community workshops, murals, benches, interactive signage, solarpunk flair, up-cycled wind chimes - you get the picture! Let your ideas take flight as you create a space that serves your community and the land.

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WILDLIFE GARDENER
 
WILDLIFE GARDENER

Awarded to the garden which goes above and beyond in its efforts to develop habitat for local wildlife populations.

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CROSS POLLINATOR
 
CROSS POLLINATOR 

Awarded to the garden that embraces the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration to co-create a meaningful space

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ROOTED IN COMMUNITY 
 
ROOTED IN COMMUNITY 

Awarded to the garden that, in its development, demonstrated a profound connection and responsiveness to the needs of the surrounding community.

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 SANCTUARY MAKER
 
  

 

 
SANCTUARY MAKER 

Awarded to the garden best designed to serve the surrounding community as a space to gather, reflect, and be in relation with the more-than-human world.

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LANDSCAPE DESIGN
 
 
  

 

 
landscape design 

Awarded to the garden which demonstrates excellence in aesthetic and functional design. 

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POPULAR VOTE 
 
 
  

 

 
 POPULAR VOTE 

Awarded to the garden that wins the hearts of Garden for Wildlife's Instagram followers by virtue of its creativity, environmental impact, and ability to inspire.

The Planty Awards

Garden for Wildlife will recognize outstanding gardens in the following categories with a Planty Award at our springtime garden party on April 28, 2024. 

Wildflower graphic for Wildlife Gardener Award

WILDLIFE GARDENER

Awarded to the garden which goes above and beyond in its efforts to develop habitat for local wildlife populations.

Bee graphic for Cross Pollinator Award

CROSS POLLINATOR

Awarded to the garden that embraces the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration to co-create a meaningful space.

Garden tools graphic for Rooted in Community Award

ROOTED IN COMMUNITY

Awarded to the garden that, in its development, demonstrated a profound connection and responsiveness to the needs of the surrounding community.

Butterfly graphic for Sanctuary Maker Award

SANCTUARY MAKER

Awarded to the garden best designed to serve the surrounding community as a space to gather, reflect, and be in relation with the more-than-human world.

Flower graphic for Landscape Design Award

LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Awarded to the garden which demonstrates excellence in aesthetic and functional design. 

Hummingbird graphic for Popular Vote Award

POPULAR VOTE

Awarded to the garden that wins the hearts of Garden for Wildlife's Instagram followers by virtue of its creativity, environmental impact, and ability to inspire.

Want more information before signing up? Email us with your questions, comments and concerns, and we’ll respond in a flash! 

Register for the Wild Visions Habitat Creation Challenge

Complete the form by February 17, 2024 to register for the Wild Visions Habitat Creation Challenge.

If you would like to participate, but have yet to identify a garden site or community partner, just fill out the required fields and we will be in touch with next steps. 

Sign up is now closed!