How You Can Help

The Demonstration Garden exists because of the ongoing generosity of the St. Louis community. We’d love for you to get involved.

Donate to Brightside

Your donations help us do all that we do. From maintaining the Demo Garden to providing neighborhoods with the materials to create their own gardens, we rely on your donations.

Donate Now

Want to know what your donations allow us to do? Here’s an idea:

  • $2,500 sponsors an educational workshop in our Demo Garden
  • $1,500 funds a Neighbors Naturescaping garden
  • $500 creates a neighborhood butterfly garden
  • $250 buys 750 daffodils to plant on area highways
  • $100 plants one tree in a neighborhood garden
  • $50 buys two tools for a neighborhood planting project
  • $25 provides four native perennials for a neighborhood garden

To learn more about donating, please visit the Brightside Donation page.

Tribute Bricks

Become a part of Brightside’s Garden forever — give the gift of a tribute brick in honor of or in memory of a loved one or show your support for Brightside with a brick featuring your name or company.

We offer a variety of bricks:

  • $1,000 “Blossom” – 12” x 12” paver engraved with your name or organization name or one-color logo
  • $500 “Bud” – 12” x 12” paver engraved with your name or organization name
  • $250 “Sprout” – 8” x 8” paver engraved with your name or organization name
  • $125 “Seed” – 4” x 8” paver engraved with your name or organization name

For more details or to order your brick, please download our Brick Order Form.

Volunteer with Brightside

Ready to get your hands dirty? We offer all kinds of volunteer opportunities for those looking to make St. Louis a more beautiful place.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please fill out our Volunteer Form. Or check out our volunteer opportunities and sign up at the same time: http://www.stlvolunteer.org/brightsidestlouis

Sign Up for Updates

Signing up for our newsletter is the best way to stay updated on the Demo Garden and all we’re doing at Brightside. Enter your email address and we’ll send updates your way.

Visit the Garden

The Demo Garden is a lot more fun if you visit in person. It’s open at all times, so feel free to swing by whenever you’d like and see which native plants are in bloom.

Check out more details on Visiting the Demo Garden.

Start a Neighborhood Garden

Brightside’s Demonstration Garden is an important part of our efforts to make St. Louis a better place.  Through our Neighbors Naturescaping program, community groups can improve public spaces in their neighborhood with native flowers, trees and shrubs.  All of the plants on the Recommended Plant Material List are growing in Brightside’s Demo Garden so visitors can see plants growing in their natural habitat.  It’s also a great way to envision how they might look in your neighborhood garden.

Through our Neighbors Naturescaping program, we work with neighborhoods to establish or enhance community green space. Brightside will provide plant material and tools plus teach you how to make your garden thrive.  Learn more about Neighbors Naturescaping and the educational workshops held in our Demo Garden.

Education & Outreach

Throughout the Demo Garden, interpretive displays allow visitors to learn about the native habitats as well as the plants that grow in each.  Each display provides information regarding the other best practices in the garden.

Educational workshops are also held in the Demo Garden to teach participants about native plants, proper planting, care and maintenance practices.  The workshop instructors also discuss sustainable practices and storm water management best practices.

The public is invited to participate in the educational workshops.  For some workshops there may be a small fee yet there is never a charge for the Neighbors Naturescaping workshops.  All of Brightside’s workshops  are led by area experts including Urban Foresters with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The goal of the workshops is to help participants learn about native landscaping and sustainable practices and then take this information and incorporate it at home and in their own neighborhoods.