Blue Thumb Workshops
Through our Blue Thumb Education programming, we provide DIYers with the information to make their outdoor spaces more beautiful and sustainable. In 2005, we started our first workshops for home… Read More →
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John Kinara Appointed New Chair of Metro Blooms Board
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Metro Blooms is pleased to announce that John Kinara has been appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of Metro Blooms. Kinara, formerly Vice-Chair, takes on the leadership role from Carol Kuechler, who will continue to serve as a Board member. “This is a very proud moment for me, stepping into the…
Sponsorship
We invite you to sponsor our work, supporting people, water, and pollinators.
Gardening with City of Lakes Community Land Trust Homeowners
Shannon modestly calls herself a “first-grader” when it comes to gardening. But she clearly knows a thing or two. Just ask about her yard, and she’ll tell you about her hostas and rhododendron; the hydrangea near her front porch that exploded in blooms last summer; her royal oak, Ralph; and the most recent addition: a…
Bringing Beauty to the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center
Drive along Brooklyn Boulevard in Brooklyn Park, and you’ll pass a typical sprawling parking lot for a shopping center. But look a little closer, and you’ll see something different about the green strip bordering the road. Amidst the typical turfgrass, cheerful clumps of native grasses and flowers beckon visitors, plantings arranged in gently curving beds…
Home
Join our fundraising event and raffle! An evening of inspiration and community to support Metro Blooms’ mission. Light hors d’oeuvres, beautiful views and connection with the people and stories behind Metro Blooms. register Today Plus, have some fun with our raffle! Buy chances to score exciting prizes, including professional landcare and a private beekeeping lesson,…
Environmental Justice
For Metro Blooms, Environmental Justice means healing and liberation for people and the earth, from toxic pollutants in our air, land, and water and freedom from the systems that cause these harms. Environmental Justice isn’t just about the environment, it’s social and economic justice, health, the quality of your surroundings, access to food and green…
Sustainable Landcare Training: Emerging Green Jobs
A job inspecting rain gardens was not exactly on Edwin’s radar when he decided to join Metro Blooms’ Sustainable Landcare Training program. The North Minneapolis resident had done some gardening in middle school and learned about plants in recent volunteer work. What he didn’t know was the potential for this interest to turn into well-paid…
Flowers That Beam Community Garden
We worked with residents at Beam Apartments and Townhomes in North Minneapolis to plan and create a mini-park for the community. Starting in 2022, we met residents at community events… Read More →
Qualified Charitable Distributions
Qualified Charitable Distribution from your IRA Starting at age 70-1/2, you can make a qualified charitable distribution from your traditional IRA. This may reduce the taxable portion of your annual required minimum distribution. To qualify: You must be 70½ or older at the time of gift. Distributions must be made directly from a traditional IRA…
Community Coffee Chat
Wednesday, May 14
Community Resources
Rich Harrison on Landscape Design, People, Pollinators and Joy
A nonexistent raingarden is how Rich Harrison connected with Metro Blooms. He was the caretaker of the apartment building where he lived, and the yard there was a mess: a couple of trees had been taken down, stormwater was collecting, and nothing was growing. Harrison decided to put in a raingarden. He knew of Metro…
Fundraising Event Raffle
Purchase tickets for a chance to win terrific prizes! Raffle tickets cost $5 each. All ticket sales support Metro Blooms’ mission. You must be 18-years-old to participate. Step 1: Select the items which you’d like to buy tickets for. Step 2: Choose how many tickets you’d like, for each of your selected items. Step 3:…
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Low-Cost and Accessible Gardening Resources
Do you know there are many resources available for free or at low cost? Some of them may be right in your neighborhood. Have a look below to find out where you can get trees, compost, mulch, and seeds — and to learn more about gardening. We’ll also add upcoming events occasionally.
Equitable Engagement Resources
Whether you are looking to hire an organization to support equitable engagement or you are seeking resources to begin or expand this work on your own, here are some resources and organizations we are learning from and want to share.
Learning and Job Resources
Below you’ll find a variety of career and learning resources, many of them for youth and young adults, to help you get started researching opportunities.
Grant Resources
Over the years Metro Blooms has benefited from numerous public and private grants. Our knowledge is not comprehensive, but we’re happy to share what we know with others doing community work. In particular we’ve had success with local government grants for clean water and pollinator habitat projects that include community engagement and management.
Jordan Area Community Council Garden
We worked with the Jordan Area Community Council (JACC) and Rusty and the Crew to add pollinator-friendly plantings in the JACC community garden in North Minneapolis. In spring 2022, volunteers… Read More →
Minneapolis Blooming Boulevards
Through Blooming Boulevards, we engage residents in communities impacted by environmental injustices to receive pollinator-friendly boulevard rain gardens, taking part in planting and maintenance events. We also partner with local… Read More →
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…
38th Street: Plants at Mama Sheila’s House of Soul
Earlier in the fall, passers-by might have noticed some bright-red planters, with late-season blooms spilling out, at the entrance to Mama Sheila’s House of Soul in Minneapolis. They matched perfectly with the outdoor tables and pergola. It was almost as if it had been planned that way all along. But it was something new. In…
Renter and Housing Resources
The list below offers many helpful renter and housing resources.
Managing Stormwater With Neighborhood of Raingardens
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…
Help Tuck Pollinators into Bed for the Winter
“Leaving the leaves” is how we can help pollinators get ready for cold weather. Last autumn, Jessica Miller took some of her neighbors’ raked-up leaves and spread them out in her yard. She put layers in her garden beds and small piles around her trees and shrubs. In a society that prizes the pristine lawn…
Trio Landscaping: Designing Yards for Now and Tomorrow
How do you live in your outdoor space? Do kids play in the yard? Do you like to gather with friends? Are you a gardener? How will all of this change over time? Diana Grundeen of Trio Landscaping asks a lot of questions the first time she meets a potential client. She’s gathering the information…
Are you interested in individual residential or commercial projects?
Metro Blooms Design + Build, a for-profit entity that supports the Metro Blooms non-profit, provides high-quality, resilient, and sustainable landcare services for residential and commercial landscapes. To see examples of… Read More →
Why Do We Care About Pollinators?
Pollinators play an essential role in Minnesota’s ecosystems. They help plants reproduce; healthy plant populations provide food and habitat to other wildlife and help to clean air and water. Pollinators sustain a healthy, diverse, functioning ecosystem. Without biodiversity, our ecosystem would fail. This is happening today. Increased human activity, pollutants, homogenization of landscapes, and other…
Sponsor Spotlight: Minnesota Native Landscapes
From restoring native plant communities in a floodplain to managing vegetation at a solar farm to deploying goat herds for buckthorn removal, Minnesota Native Landscapes Corp. (MNL) takes on many large-scale projects as part of its mission to “Heal the Earth.” But this Otsego, MN-based ecological restoration business also supports individuals to take action in…