A Permeable Alley in a Minneapolis Neighborhood
Lori Fewer is pleased with the new surface on the alley, just installed, behind her house. “It’s beautiful,” she says. The network of interlocking concrete pavers is much more inviting… Read More →
News & Events
Choosing Turf Alternatives
If you want to change your lawn, ask yourself what you expect from your new landscape. How different do you want it to look? How much time are you prepared… Read More →
Be a grower instead of mower: eco-landscaping expert joins Metro Blooms
The way Douglas Owens-Pike sees it, people can spend less time and money on their landscaping, all the while creating more beautiful, resilient yards. They can reduce their grass-cutting and… Read More →
Metro Blooms’ Maintenance Training Pilot Program
The Sustainable Need to Weed “How many of you, if we go out to weed right now, would know what you’re doing?” Anna Bierbauer, our Metro Blooms landscape designer, asks.… Read More →
Workshop Reflections
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 →
Metro Blooms Featured on Grow with KARE
http://www.kare11.com/life/home-garden/grow-with-kare/grow-with-kare-planting-resilient-yards/429656396
Sustainable Lawns: How “Green” is Your Grass?
We are a lawn-abiding citizenry. Dutifully we water, fertilize, and mow, and for our efforts we are rewarded with a lush, well-manicured carpet of grass – the thicker and more… Read More →
Creating Climate Resilient Yards
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 →
A Year In Summary – 2016
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… Read More →
Permeable Pavement Maintenance
You’ve got this great new permeable pavement in your driveway. Now what? As with everything we value, some level of maintenance is required in order to keep it looking good… Read More →
Collecting Native Seeds for Garden Expansion
Many of Minnesota’s native plants are seed factories. Most of our favorite species, while being fairly non-aggressive spreaders in the garden, produce large quantities of viable seed that can delight… Read More →
Seasonal Garden Guide
As a landscape designer, the most common question that I get asked when walking around a yard with a homeowner is “How do I maintain all of these plants, and… Read More →
Fall Maintenance for Raingardens and Native Plantings
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 →
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 →
Art & Stormwater: Black Forest Inn Open House
City of Minneapolis Great Streets Program Recipient Metro Blooms to Unveil Unique Art Installation that Manages Storm Water Runoff Open House to take place at Black Forest Inn on Wednesday,… 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 →
2015 Top Garden Awardees Announced
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 →
Grow with KARE: Best cottage garden
Take time to “smell the roses” with the first of 3 eye-catching segments with Belinda Jensen featuring a few of our 2014 top garden award-winners! Tune in the next several… Read More →
Floating Islands Become Popular to Clean Polluted Minn. Lakes, Ponds
Interest in floating islands is growing as people look to clean polluted lakes and ponds. Heidi Heiland owns a floating island model on Gleason Lake in Wayzata. She helps install… Read More →
Blooming Alleys Partnerships
In the fall of 2014 Metro Blooms worked with some great community members just to the west of Lake Nokomis to install the first ever “Blooming Alley” in Minneapolis. Since… Read More →
The Garden In Spring
In the early part of spring, after the snow has melted and before new growth has started for the season, gardeners can remove last year’s decaying growth. We call this… Read More →
Planting For Pollinators: How Raingardens Can Help
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 →
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 →
Raingarden Maintenance: Plant Replacement And Establishment
As you may have read in our recent blog post ‘Green Streets for Blue Waters’, our two year project in partnership with the City of Bloomington just wrapped up. The project… Read More →
Green Streets For Blue Waters
Hello All, We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the participants of the Bloomington Green Streets for Blue Waters program for taking part in this important project and give… Read More →
An Alley Blooms
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 →
Blooming Alley Tour & Happy Hour
Written by Aleli Balagtas Come see Metro Blooms’ first Blooming Alley, and rediscover back alleys. The idea is to look beyond garbage cans and garages and envision alleys as inviting,… Read More →
Lake Nokomis Alley Get-Together
On April 12th, 2014 more then 35 neighbors from two blocks in the Lake Nokomis watershed got together to reimagine their alleyway. Why? How? Where? Was there food? you may be… 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 →
Metro Blooms Garden Evaluation And Awards
On November 7th, 2013 over 150 people gathered at the Columbia Manor in Northeast Minneapolis to recognize beautiful Minneapolis gardens, and the people that create them, at our annual Minneapolis… Read More →