Cleanscapes: An eco friendly garden cost share program in Howard County, MD

Cleanscapes is a program that will cover 75% cost of certain landscape projects if approved by the program. There are several requirements to be eligible for the program which can all be found on their website! If you are interested in having a rain garden, conservation landscape or tree canopy expansion (planting trees) on your property and getting a 75% reimbursement from the County you MUST START the process with Cleanscapes! They will come to your property and preapprove your projects. At that point you can reach out to us and we will schedule a site visit and give you an estimate for the cost of your projects. We have lots of experience with the program and have designed and planted hundreds of projects in Howard County, MD that have all been approved and reimbursed!

The application opens on April 1st so please prepare yourself and be ready to apply right away on April 1st! The timeline for the program can be found on the Cleanscapes website and means that your project will be designed and planted next spring (not this season).

The projects we design and install the most are rain gardens and conservation landscapes. A really quick, rough estimate, is that each project is about $3-4K and about $800-1000 out of pocket. The program has approved more than one project on properties but that does depend on how many applications they get. They want to make sure that each property at least gets one approval before doing multiples.  Make sure you select a contractor that has experience working within the program so that the gardens they install meet the requirements for reimbursement.

I’ve included some photos of projects we have planted below!

Designed and installed by Lauren’s Garden Service, this conservation landscape full of native plants helps with drainage and erosion and the cost was 75% covered by the Cleanscapes program

This rain garden in Columbia was designed by Lauren and planted by her eco friendly landscape team. The clients received a 75% reimbursement from the County through the Cleanscapes program

Lauren designed and her team planted this rain garden in Ellicott City. The Cleanscapes program had approved this project and reimbursed the client 75% of the cost

An Ellicott City resident applied for the Cleanscapes program and got approved for several projects that were designed and planted by Lauren from Lauren’s Garden Service and her eco friendly landscape team. The clients received a 75% reimbursement on the cost of their projects.