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Three men after planting in a large community garden

Creating Sustainable Green Space With Community

When Hawo Abdi saw a flier about a tree-planting event in the elevator at her apartment building, she immediately took a picture and sent it around to other friends with children urging them to attend. The event would teach youth about how to plant trees, take better care of the earth, and give their time…

Celebrate Sustainable Landcare Training

Thursday, August 15 5pm – 6:30pm Co-hosted by Metro Blooms and Blue Thumb Partners  Please gather with us as we celebrate the continued growth of our Sustainable Landcare Training program. You’ll hear remarks from Jamez Staples, Founder of Renewable Energy Partners, Inc., Laura Scholl, Executive Director of Metro Blooms, Sustainable Landcare Trainees, and Shahram Missaghi…

Turf to Pollinator Gardens in Twin Cities Regional Parks

One morning last May, fifth-graders from the American Indian Magnet School gathered in a circle on a little island near the shore of Keller Lake Regional Park in Maplewood. Teacher Thomas Draskovic, a Lakota/Dakota culture and language specialist, led student drummers in a song acknowledging the four directions, the sky, and Mother Earth. Then it…

You’re Invited!

An event to celebrate the Riverside Plaza Community Gardens and our dedicated donors Thursday, July 18 4pm – 6pm Riverside Plaza, at the small park on the northwest corner of 6th Street and Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis. Please let us know if you plan to attend.

Rusty patched bumblebee with wildflowers

Turf to Pollinator Gardens

Creating Pollinator Havens With Native Plant Gardens Do you want to attract more pollinators in your yard? We’ll show you how, through Turf to Pollinator Gardens. We’re working with Wilderness in the City and other partners to plant six native plant pollinator gardens in Twin Cities regional parks. The gardens replace turf grass lawn, which…

Training a group of landcare training participants on a rain garden site

Sustainable Landcare Training

Through the Blue Thumb Sustainable Landcare Training (SLC) program, we’re growing a local green infrastructure workforce and creating pathways in the environmental field. During the 30-hour program, trainees learn about…  Read More

Purchase a Replacement Rain Garden Sign

If you have a rain garden installed by Metro Blooms but no longer have the sign it came with, we have replacements! Our newest version is bilingual, with English on one side and Spanish on the other. It is 10 inches wide, so you may need to get a new sign stake for it as…

People in a classroom sized room looking at screen with photos of lake shoreline plantings

Blue Thumb Workshops

Through our Blue Thumb Education programming, we provide DIYers with the information to make their outdoor spaces more beautiful and sustainable. In 2005, we started our first workshops for home…  Read More

headshot man in suit and tie

John Kinara Appointed New Chair of Metro Blooms Board

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Metro Blooms is pleased to announce that John Kinara has been appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of Metro Blooms. Kinara, formerly Vice-Chair, takes on the leadership role from Carol Kuechler, who will continue to serve as a Board member. “This is a very proud moment for me, stepping into the…

closeup hands in gardening gloves in flower garden

Sponsorship

We invite you to sponsor our work, supporting people, water, and pollinators.

Project Gallery

Welcome to our project gallery. These projects are examples of our partnerships and work with communities. Click the photos to learn more about each project. Or search through our project library. See all gallery items

People in a front yard learning about gardening

Gardening with City of Lakes Community Land Trust Homeowners

Shannon modestly calls herself a “first-grader” when it comes to gardening. But she clearly knows a thing or two. Just ask about her yard, and she’ll tell you about her hostas and rhododendron; the hydrangea near her front porch that exploded in blooms last summer; her royal oak, Ralph; and the most recent addition: a…

Brooklyn Park residents helping install the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center plantings.

Bringing Beauty to the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center

Drive along Brooklyn Boulevard in Brooklyn Park, and you’ll pass a typical sprawling parking lot for a shopping center. But look a little closer, and you’ll see something different about the green strip bordering the road. Amidst the typical turfgrass, cheerful clumps of native grasses and flowers beckon visitors, plantings arranged in gently curving beds…

Home

Our Mission Metro Blooms partners with communities to create resilient landscapes and foster clean watersheds, embracing the values of equity and inclusion to solve environmental challenges. Learn more. Donate

A happy person wearing gardening gloves holding butterfly weed near garden

Environmental Justice

For Metro Blooms, Environmental Justice means healing and liberation for people and the earth, from toxic pollutants in our air, land, and water and freedom from the systems that cause these harms.  Environmental Justice isn’t just about the environment, it’s social and economic justice, health, the quality of your surroundings, access to food and green…

Landcare training participant weeding

Sustainable Landcare Training: Emerging Green Jobs

A job inspecting rain gardens was not exactly on Edwin’s radar when he decided to join Metro Blooms’ Sustainable Landcare Training program. The North Minneapolis resident had done some gardening in middle school and learned about plants in recent volunteer work. What he didn’t know was the potential for this interest to turn into well-paid…

Two children planting plants

Flowers That Beam Community Garden

We worked with residents at Beam Apartments and Townhomes in North Minneapolis to plan and create a mini-park for the community. Starting in 2022, we met residents at community events…  Read More

Qualified Charitable Distributions

Qualified Charitable Distribution from your IRA Starting at age 70-1/2, you can make a qualified charitable distribution from your traditional IRA. This may reduce the taxable portion of your annual required minimum distribution. To qualify: You must be 70½ or older at the time of gift. Distributions must be made directly from a traditional IRA…

Man holding award

Rich Harrison on Landscape Design, People, Pollinators and Joy

A nonexistent raingarden is how Rich Harrison connected with Metro Blooms. He was the caretaker of the apartment building where he lived, and the yard there was a mess: a couple of trees had been taken down, stormwater was collecting, and nothing was growing. Harrison decided to put in a raingarden. He knew of Metro…

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seedlings in containers ready to be planted

Low-Cost and Accessible Gardening Resources

Do you know there are many resources available for free or at low cost? Some of them may be right in your neighborhood. Have a look below to find out where you can get trees, compost, mulch, and seeds — and to learn more about gardening. We’ll also add upcoming events occasionally.

poster board with with a design and sticky note comments on the board

Equitable Engagement Resources

Whether you are looking to hire an organization to support equitable engagement or you are seeking resources to begin or expand this work on your own, here are some resources and organizations we are learning from and want to share.

two people looking inside overed containers with leaves inside

Learning and Job Resources

The green economy is growing, providing well-paying jobs and education opportunities to people interested in beautifying and protecting the environment. Below you’ll find a variety of career and learning resources, many of them for youth and young adults, to help you get started researching opportunities.

The back of a person at computer looking at the screen

Grant Resources

Over the years Metro Blooms has benefited from numerous public and private grants. Our knowledge is not comprehensive, but we’re happy to share what we know with others doing community work. In particular we’ve had success with local government grants for clean water and pollinator habitat projects that include community engagement and management.

Group of people on sidewalk including one in a costume posing for picture

Jordan Area Community Council Garden

We worked with the Jordan Area Community Council (JACC) and Rusty and the Crew to add pollinator-friendly plantings in the JACC community garden in North Minneapolis. In spring 2022, volunteers…  Read More

Group of people planting a corner garden in parking lot

Minneapolis Blooming Boulevards

In 2023, we partnered with environmental justice communities in Minneapolis to create pollinator-friendly boulevard rain gardens. Thirty projects were installed at residential and community sites, including six rain gardens near…  Read More

sculptural wall planter with new plants

38th Street: Goodridge Building Green Wall

During the six years that Becca Cerra has had a studio at Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center (CAFAC), she never noticed the Goodridge Building, one of CAFAC’s neighbors at George Floyd Square. With a non-descript brick front, it looked like just another quiet office space among a string of local businesses that make up the…

red planter with native flowers near red pergola

38th Street: Plants at Mama Sheila’s House of Soul

Earlier in the fall, passers-by might have noticed some bright-red planters, with late-season blooms spilling out, at the entrance to Mama Sheila’s House of Soul in Minneapolis. They matched perfectly with the outdoor tables and pergola. It was almost as if it had been planned that way all along. But it was something new. In…

View looking up at tree and top corner of building

Renter Resources

  The list below offers many helpful sources of information for renters.