Six local businesses and organizations receive Seed Money Award for aesthetic improvements
Black Mountain Beautification Committee announces 2025 grant recipients
Jessica Klarp
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
April 7, 2025
Goldfinch and Lucky Penny Speakeasy, adjacent restaurants on Cherry Street, is one of six recipients of the BMBC’s Seed Money Award, which assists local businesses and organizations with landscaping improvements. Photo by Jessica Klarp
Central to the Black Mountain Beautification Committee’s mission is to honor the natural beauty of the mountains while seeking to reflect that beauty on the streets of town and in the lives of its citizens. One of the ways the volunteer-led non-profit organization accomplishes that mission is through its annual Seed Money Award. For the past 20 years, the grant has gone by a variety of names, but its purpose is the same: to award an in-town business, church or organization with the funds to help support a garden-related improvement plan.
This year, the committee received multiple carefully considered proposals for improvement and most of them were supported in part or in full. The 2025 Seed Money Award recipients are Acoustic Corner and a neighbor sharing the slope beside the business, Berliner Kindl German Restaurant, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, Black Mountain Primary School, Red House Gallery and Goldfinch Cocktails and Kitchen.
BMBC member Jean Chamberlain has been leading the Seed Money Award committee for several years and has seen the impact of improvements.
“We fund the award through the annual Garden Sale,” Chamberlain said. “And it is so rewarding to see patches of dirt or unsightly corners evolve into stretches of flowers and loved greenspaces that the whole community enjoys. Each year the fund has grown which offers us more opportunities to help support our business owners and encourages neighbors to put in extra effort.” Some of these winners have received the assistance of Seed Money in the past for an aspect of their property and are hoping this year to extend or expand on the work already accomplished.
Red House Gallery & Studios received a Seed Money Award grant through the BMBC for the second straight year, as the downtown nonprofit organization continues to enhance its rear entrance. Photo by Jessica Klarp
Acoustic Corner Music Shop requested funding to help transform the hillside at the back of the parking lot it shares with the White Horse. The plan is to improve the hill next to the business entrance, which is unsightly and covered with English Ivy, kudzu and chokeberry, to a pollinator garden with supplemental annuals for more color.
Red House Gallery used Seed Money last year to improve the look of the back of their business, which is on the gravel parking lot it shares with multiple businesses. Phase II will add additional perennials and annuals to their pocket garden at the back entrance.
Goldfinch and Lucky Penny Speakeasy have new owners who have a distinct vision to improve the landscape and ambiance to their two businesses.The grant will help fund lattice replacements with wires for new healthy, climbing nightshade vines on the fence and hanging baskets along the buildings on Cherry Street, while refreshing all planting beds that are currently in place.
New owners of Berliner Kindl are very interested in improving the landscape around their restaurant. The award will be used to add seasonal flowers to the pots in front of the restaurant. In addition, they will remove the old forsythia and tree in the bed next to the restaurant, amend the soil and replace it with an evergreen and perennials.
The BMBC is awarding Seed Money to the Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, which began improving the hillside on the south side of its property a year ago. Photo by Jessica Klarp
Black Mountain Primary School envisions a garden around the sign in front of the school on East State Street. This project would involve digging up the turf to restore and amend the soil to create a garden bed with low growing shrubs and perennials.
Black Mountain Presbyterian asked for assistance to complete Phase II of the church’s 2024 Seed Money project. The goal was to improve a bare space with erosion that was harming the roots of the old oak tree standing there. They used last year’s funds to build a split rail fence that prevents people from using the slope as a walkway to the sidewalk, and to plant a native flower bed among the roots. The church asked for Seed Money to provide funds for native evergreen flowering shrubs and a few perennials and markers to identify the plants in the bed.
Over the years dozens of businesses have benefited from the grant, but the real winner is the community. By bringing color and lush plant material to the front of every store and street, there is no question that civic pride is in full force.
The Black Mountain Beautification Committee is an all-volunteer non-profit organization made up of Black Mountain residents. The 90 active members maintain more than 25 public garden sites, 53 plant containers and Town Square They decorate the town for various holidays and organize and staff the annual Garden Sale each May. The committee exists solely by the support of community volunteers and private donations. To get involved, donate or learn more about BMBC visit blackmountainbeautification.org.