One thing interns are sure to learn about at Metro Blooms is raingardens. This summer we hosted Althea Kuzniewski, an environmental studies major at the University of Minnesota. Althea came to us through the U’s Institute on the Environment, in an internship supported by Ecolab. She had the job of visiting and assessing raingardens we…
When you walk through your neighborhood, it is not uncommon to see a tree, in a boulevard, marked with a big “X” in bright, neon-green paint. This green “X” indicates that the tree is an ash tree, a target of one of the nation’s most infamous insect pests, the emerald ash borer (EAB). This beetle,…
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…
We are working with community partners to develop projects focused on clean water investment in Near North Minneapolis neighborhoods. We partnered with Harrison Neighborhood Association to recruit three businesses, Venture North Bike Shop, Ripley Gardens apartments, and KNOCK Inc., to install raingardens, permeable pavement, boulevard bioswales and pollinator habitat in 2019. Engagement with these businesses… Read More →
This revitalization project brought clean water projects and native habitat to businesses and organizations on Central Avenue and nearby. The projects were on small, urban, almost completely impervious sites, so we got creative in our use of raingardens, permeable pavement, bee lawn boulevards, native prairie, native plantings and a green roof (our first). We worked… Read More →
In 2017 and 2018, the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association (NENA) partnered with Metro Blooms to install patches of pollinator-friendly plants, focused on attracting the monarch butterfly, along East 50th St. in the Nokomis East neighborhood. The goal was to provide pollinator way stations between the Nokomis Naturescape Garden at Lake Nokomis and Gateway Gardens near… Read More →
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.
When Metro Blooms is in the field, there’s a good chance that the crew on site are wearing yellow helmets. If so, they are likely a crew from Conservation Corps MN & Iowa, a longtime Metro Blooms partner. This organization has installed more of our raingardens than any other group we work with. In turn,… Read More →
Board member Norman Greenberg talks about Metro Blooms: I was looking for an organization that would allow me to give back locally and also follow a longtime passion, gardening. The current board chair of Metro Blooms was an acquaintance and asked me to consider Metro Blooms. I looked at the website and felt an immediate… Read More →
(Caption: The NEON Property Maintenance program invests in human capital. Sheltonn Johnson, manager of program) Sheltonn Johnson now sees plants that he used to walk by every day without ever noticing. He is familiar with different ways of preventing stormwater runoff and has hands-on experience in measuring and excavating a raingarden. These are some benefits… Read More →
If Metro Blooms were a vehicle (green energy-powered, of course), the community would be the driver. The destination is always the same: clean water, habitat and a more beautiful environment. But it is a community’s residents, businesses and local institutions that decide how the journey is taken. As a non-profit that specializes in ecological landscaping,… Read More →
The end of a year naturally brings about a desire to reflect on what we as an organization have achieved, what’s made us pound our heads on our desks, and what’s inspired our passion to continue the work that we do. What I find myself wondering most is “when will our next batch of Christmas… Read More →
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 the urban landscape, the MJV is pleased to welcome Metro Blooms, a Minnesota Twin Cities based metropolitan group working “to promote and celebrate gardening, to… Read More →
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 field work with a big focus on education and community engagement. This past year we were able to work on projects with some really amazing… Read More →
Metro Blooms is pleased to announce the 2015 Top Minneapolis Garden Awards. These gardens represent some of the most beautiful, creative and sustainable gardens in the Minneapolis, selected by volunteer evaluators from more than 1,000 nominations. The Minneapolis Garden Awards program has been recognizing outstanding work in publicly visible gardens since 1983. Photos of these… Read More →
