More and more, people understand the value of a raingarden as a green solution to preventing runoff that leads to water pollution and downstream flooding. At Metro Blooms, we are… Read More →
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…
Landscape and photo by Russ Henry, Giving Tree Gardens We often get questions in the fall regarding raingarden maintenance. One of our Landscape Designers, Andy Novak, recently shared this thoughtful… Read More →
In a world without bees, your next plate of food would have considerably less variety. By some estimates, one of every three bites of food we take depends on pollinators like… Read More →
Well folks it’s time. It seems to me like our spattering of 70 degree days are done for the year, which means you can trade in your lawn mower for… Read More →
Schnazy new title, and some new information too. This year Metro Blooms’ classic Raingarden Workshops are doing just what the new title says…they’re going beyond the do-it-yourself approach to raingarden design… Read More →
How can you make beautiful music for beautiful gardens? Through Ecosong, an environmental music project that connects musical creators, community organizations, scientists and others to advance stewardship and make inspiring environmental music. Its song garden program matches musical artists from the community with specific gardens. The artist(s) create music for the garden, and Ecosong produces…
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…
We worked 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… Read More →
Who We Are Metro Blooms is a nonprofit that partners with communities to create resilient landscapes and foster clean watersheds, embracing the values of equity and inclusion to solve environmental challenges. We believe that collaboration with our communities is the most impactful way to heal our earth and we strive to center relationships in all…
For over ten years, we have worked with neighborhoods, cities, and so many other partners to install accessible and functional projects with their residents.
Our work only begins with the design and installation of raingardens, native plant gardens, and other sustainable practices. Time may heal all wounds, but when partnered with neglect, erosion, corrosion and weed infiltration, it can turn the most carefully-installed project into what our industry calls “a mess.” This can keep the project from soaking in…
Metro Blooms is putting together our first crew! They’ll be among the first “students” in a training program we’ve been developing to teach sustainable landcare. We’re planning to teach the… Read More →
(photo: Garden nurtured by board members Randy and Bridget Rau) On the Community of Gardeners I have been working with plants and learning about plants for 25-plus years. I love… Read More →
Metro Blooms’ design team has become more artistic. When new member Jennifer Moeller is not out in the field working or in the office planning, she just might be drawing… Read More →
What a Twentysomething Renter Learned I have recently experienced the effects of poorly managed stormwater: water dripped from the roof and into the spaces between my apartment walls, paint… Read More →
We live in unsettled times, and nowhere is this more evident than outside our own windows. Through them, we see more extreme weather events every year. Leslie Yetka, of the Freshwater… 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… 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… Read More →
In our first post about the Blooming Alleys Partnership I described the collaborative meeting we had in April, here at Sabathani, with all of our project partners to figure out what… Read More →
Blooming Alleys is a program of Metro Blooms that aims to protect waterways, create habitat, and transform communities by working with blocks of residents to re-imagine what their alleyway looks like… Read More →
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 →
An Alley Blooms Finally, it was an alley’s time to shine. Blue Thumb recently hosted a tour of the first Blooming Alley in Minneapolis, a green project to redesign back alleys. The… Read More →
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 →
This past Tuesday, myself, Mark Pedelty (a professor at the U of MN), and three of his students had the pleasure of learning about the history of Lake Nokomis from… Read More →
Metro Blooms has recently taken on its largest survey yet. Throughout February we’ve been prepping, administering and entering oodles of data from our first ever KAP study (KAP stands for… Read More →
N. MPLS– This Earth Day, Metro Blooms is teaming up with Project for Pride in Living (PPL) to build a raingarden. Not just any raingarden mind you, but a raingarden… Read More →
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 →
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 →
