27 Jan USDA National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Awards $250,000 Grant to Powell Gardens

Powell Gardens was recently awarded a $250,000 grant from the USDA National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to establish Powell Gardens as a regional learning hub for agricultural producers, private landowners, horticulturalists, hobbyists, and the general citizenry in partnership with NRCS.

Half-day workshops (approximately three hours) will be presented by Powell Gardens’ horticulturists, bringing in community experts (e.g., experts from the Missouri Department of Conservation, University of Central Missouri, and University of Missouri) as appropriate. Powell Gardens has presented similar workshops for agriculture producers, including an all-day presentation on designing native and ecological plant communities and discussions of rain gardens and meadows. The interactive workshop introduced participants to the science behind stable and lasting plant combinations and taught the skill of creating plant communities through hands-on design exercises and a hypothetical planting project at the end of the workshop. Powell Gardens provides the ideal living classroom for workshop participants to gain hands-on experience in described sustainable gardening techniques.

Powell Gardens, Inc. (the Gardens), Kansas City’s botanical garden, is a vital institution in the Kansas City metropolitan area with deep agricultural roots. In 1948, George E. Powell, Sr., a prominent Kansas City businessman and future owner of Yellow Transit Freight Lines (now YRC Worldwide), acquired a tract of land that was once a working dairy farm. Mr. Powell donated the 640-acre farm to the Kansas City Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America in 1969 and the land was used as a regional camp for over a decade. In 1984, the Powell Family Foundation began developing a horticultural and natural resource facility called Powell Center in partnership with the University of Missouri’s School of Agriculture.