This past summer, we teamed up with neighborhoods, cities, and the Conservation Corps of Minnesota & Iowa (CCM) to install raingardens in residents’ yards and teach them about sustainable landscaping practices along the way. These efforts were part of our Neighborhood of Raingardens program, which aims to make clean-water planting projects easier and more affordable for people living in Minneapolis and surrounding cities. 

Neighborhood of Raingardens is unique because it is a cost-share program: cities and neighborhoods pay for a portion of the work (sometimes with the support of a grant), and a Clean Water Fund grant covers costs for CCM to complete installations. That means that resident participants only pay a small share of the cost to get their raingarden in the ground! 

This year, we had the opportunity to partner with the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Armatage, Lynnhurst, Windom Park and Waite Park, as well as the City of St. Louis Park. We’re so grateful for our partners and the CCM crew members who did the hard work of digging out and mulching the raingardens. 

Raingardens help reduce stormwater runoff, a major cause of water pollution. By creating places where water can slow down, collect, and infiltrate into the soil, we divert runoff (along with pollutants and debris) from entering storm sewers that empty into our lakes and streams. This helps improve the water quality in our watershed. By the end of the season, we installed 87 new raingardens that capture an estimated 1,687,800 gallons of stormwater annually. 

The deep-rooted native plants in raingardens also help soak up stormwater and take up pollutants. In addition to cleaning water, these plants provide important habitat and nourishment to pollinators and other wildlife. While our crew and the CMM installed each raingarden, residents got to do the planting! 9,418 sq. feet of raingardens were planted by residents with 4,993 native plants. Thanks so much, residents, for your hard work and enthusiasm!

How it Happens

Every Neighborhood of Raingardens project begins with a consultation between the participant and one of our designers. This year, design team members Nikolai Fjelstad De Santiago, Chris Ototo, Kyle Thurston, and James St. George Schreder were all involved in creating raingarden designs.

“The first thing we do is look around their yard and identify locations for the raingarden,” Chris says. He explains that they look at conditions like elevation and the amount of sun different areas receive in a day to figure out where a raingarden will best capture stormwater and thrive. 

The next step is figuring out what plants will go in the raingarden. “We talk about their preferences, colors they like, ranges of heights,” Nikolai says. They also discuss what types of plants will do best in shady or sunny spots, then take all the notes to the computer where the magic of designing happens.

Meeting community members was something both Chris and Nikolai particularly enjoyed. “You get to meet so many new folks and have a chance to change their perspective of gardens,” Nikolai says. “I’ve stayed in contact with some and it’s satisfying to hear how their raingardens are doing, and see pictures.” 

For Kyle, who joined Metro Blooms as a seasonal designer and project manager after finishing his degree in environmental design, Neighborhood of Raingardens was a valuable opportunity for getting real-world design experience. “I get anxious about every design, hoping that it will be the best fit for the resident,” he says. “But it’s rewarding to see it all come together in the end, all the way down to seeing residents pick up their plants.” 

James, currently in school for landscape architecture, also worked as a seasonal designer for the program. “A lot of my classes look at restoration on a regional or citywide level. It was exciting to be able to create meaningful change at the residential scale,” James says. While the raingardens James designed are no larger than 150 square feet, each one adds up. “With Neighborhood of Raingardens, we get to bring sustainability and water management down to a scale that’s super personal,” he says. “When you do the planting and see those plants grow over time, it becomes a part of your life.” 

It may be the end of our season, but it’s only the beginning for our neighbors’ new raingardens. As we finish up our fall maintenance and leave some leaves out for overwintering pollinators, we’re already looking ahead to next year’s projects. If you’re curious about what Neighborhood of Raingardens could look like in your community, we encourage you to contact us or tell your neighborhood association or city about the program. We can all build more resilient watersheds together—one raingarden at a time!

— Megan Reich, Metro Blooms Marketing and Communications Specialist