Who We Are
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.
Search Results
Searched for: 2009
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…
Our Roots, Our Work
Metro Blooms grew out of a volunteer-powered garden recognition program, the Minneapolis Garden Awards program, which was first established by the City of Minneapolis’ Committee on the Urban Environment (CUE). Between 1979 and 2016, hundreds of trained volunteer evaluators visited thousands of gardens, every year recognizing and celebrating excellence, and inspiring a proud culture of…
Landscape Redesign: Working With the Community
Inviting a community’s residents to be part of redesigning their landscape helps to create outdoor space more responsive to their needs and increases the likelihood of their stewardship of the space. Currently Metro Blooms is on this journey with tenants at Brook Gardens, a rental community in Brooklyn Park where we recently finished our first…
Neighborhood of Raingardens
Our Neighborhood of Raingardens program began in 2009 to support large-scale community participation in the installation of raingardens and to build awareness of raingardens and other actions you can take in your landscape to protect clean water in our environment. Typically, these projects are a cost share between a neighborhood organization and property owners. Participants attend…
Mission + Vision + Equity
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.
A Decade of Neighborhood of Raingardens
One of our longest-running programs, Neighborhood of Raingardens, turns 10 this year. Over the past decade, we’ve been installing raingardens in people’s yards, neighborhood by neighborhood, while teaching residents about landscaping practices that can help reduce stormwater runoff, a major cause of water pollution. Our goal is to help people make their property and community…
Metro Blooms, St. Louis Park and the Rainwater Rewards Partnership
(Photo courtesy of the City of St. Louis Park) “I am a raingarden” signs have sprouted like wildflowers in some St. Louis Park neighborhoods this summer. They are located in… Read More →
Metro Blooms Expands Monarch Conservation in Minnesota Metropolitan Area
As we approach monarch conservation from all angles, we rely on partners who work in different arenas, with different, yet related, expertise. Focusing on restoration of native plants in… Read More →
A Year in Summary
As I began thinking about a summary of our year at Metro Blooms, I started thinking about what excites me the most about my job. At Metro Blooms, we couple… Read More →
Blue Thumb/Metro Blooms Merger: Frequently Asked Questions
Metro Blooms and Blue Thumb are Merging! The following describes the current understanding of how the Blue Thumb program would be governed and would operate following a merger of the… Read More →
2014 Triumphs And Lessons Learned
Wow. I know I said last year was busy, but 2014 was so busy we hardly had time to blog about, well, anything. Over the last 12 months we’ve worked… Read More →
Volunteer Spotlight: Bob Wolk
Bob Wolk joined Metro Blooms’ team of volunteers in 2008. As someone who likes to constantly reinvent himself, he’s taken on many different roles to support Metro Blooms over the… Read More →
Volunteer Spotlight: Barb Gasterland
Barb Gasterland is one of our longtime volunteers. She started out as a garden evaluator in 2005, when her interest in a raingarden movement happening at the time led her… Read More →
Volunteer Spotlight: Mark Pedelty
For our first Volunteer Spotlight, we have Mark Pedelty, a University of Minnesota professor whose involvement with Metro Blooms stems from some really interesting experiences. You might ask why a… Read More →
2013 Triumphs And Lessons Learned
As 2013 winds to an end, we find ourselves spending a lot of time planning for NEXT year. At Metro Blooms we’re writing work plans for 2014, anxiously awaiting the… Read More →
Neighborhood Of Raingarden Installations 2013
Throughout the summer and fall of 2013, Metro Blooms has been working hard with the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa to install raingardens in five different neighborhoods in Minneapolis.… Read More →
Biography Of The Month
To kick off a new year of staff, board and volunteer biographies (that’s right volunteers, I’m coming for you next) I interviewed Bryan Pynn, Metro Blooms’ director of design and… Read More →
Biography Of The Month
Metro Blooms’ biography for the month of November (I know it’s really December, but only by three days!) is highlighting our executive director, Becky Rice. Becky may be the only… Read More →
Cool Season Weeding
As mid-May surprises us with it’s vigor and business, so does the Spring weeds! Here’s some tips and pics for starting the year in control of the gardener’s ancient nemesis. Watch for… Read More →
And The Survey Says…
Here in the office we’ve been analyzing Raingarden Workshop surveys from years gone past, pulling out trends and interesting snippets that can point us to a better awareness of our… Read More →
Spotlight Projects: Spring 2012
All of us here at Metro Blooms are excited for our 2012 projects… we have dozens! 😀There are two however that we’d like to describe more in depth: Urban Homeworks… Read More →