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seedlings in containers ready to be planted

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.

poster board with with a design and sticky note comments on the board

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.

two people looking inside overed containers with leaves inside

Learning and Job Resources

The green economy is growing, providing well-paying jobs and education opportunities to people interested in beautifying and protecting the environment. 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.

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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.

View looking up at tree and top corner of building

Renter Resources

  The list below offers many helpful sources of information for renters.

Who We Are

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. Vision Engage communities to create resilient landscapes. Values Ecological health; environmental justice; education; inspiration; community engagement; and partnership

Turf to Pollinator Gardens in Twin Cities Regional Parks

One morning last May, fifth-graders from the American Indian Magnet School gathered in a circle on a little island near the shore of Keller Lake Regional Park in Maplewood. Teacher Thomas Draskovic, a Lakota/Dakota culture and language specialist, led student drummers in a song acknowledging the four directions, the sky, and Mother Earth. Then it…

Rusty patched bumblebee with wildflowers

Turf to Pollinator Gardens

Creating Pollinator Havens With Native Plant Gardens Do you want to attract more pollinators in your yard? We’ll show you how, through Turf to Pollinator Gardens. Alongside Wilderness in the City and other partners, we planted six native plant pollinator gardens in Twin Cities regional parks. The gardens replaced turf grass lawn, which offers little…

headshot man in suit and tie

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…

closeup hands in gardening gloves in flower garden

Sponsorship

We invite you to sponsor our work, supporting people, water, and pollinators.

People in a front yard learning about gardening

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…

Who We Are

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.

Home

Our 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. Learn more. Donate

A happy person wearing gardening gloves holding butterfly weed near garden

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…

Group of people on sidewalk including one in a costume posing for picture

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

bee in plant stem

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…

rusty patched bumble bee on plant

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…

orange flowers in field, building in back

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…

Rebecca Rice

Rebecca Rice Steps Back as Executive Director of Metro Blooms

  Rebecca Rice, the Metro Blooms President and Executive Director, has decided to step back to direct the organization’s Blue Thumb program effective May 9, 2022. Laura Scholl, formerly Associate Director and Director of Fund Development, assumes the role of President and Executive Director. “It is an exciting time at Metro Blooms as our organization…

Impact Climate Change in Your Yard With a Rain Garden

Climate change, the long-term change in the Earth’s temperature, is bringing massive and detrimental consequences. What are these consequences and how do they affect us? Have you noticed the increasingly extreme weather? Like heat waves or flooding rains? The vast majority of scientists agree that human activity is the primary cause of climate change, so…

Awards Recognizing Metro Blooms

2022 Environmental Initiative Award, Local Sustainability Impacts, for Brook Gardens: Clean Water + Livability, a multi-partner project engaging a rental community on co-creation of more resilient landscapes 2022 Environmental Excellence Award, Minnesota Erosion Control Association 2021 Summer Blossom Award, Grand Neighborhood Garden, City of Brooklyn Park, for our work engaging rental communities on co-creation of…

38th Street: More Nature at Hardshell Fitness

The more nature, the better, for Ben Swarts. A couple of years ago, when he moved his business, Hardshell Fitness, into a former gas station on 38th Street at Longfellow, Swarts “threw” some seeds down behind the building. Today that space is a beautiful wildflower garden. Now he looks at the gray expanse of paved…

“Raingarden Refresh” for Neighborhood of Raingardens 2021

Last summer was the first time we did a Neighborhood of Raingardens program in one community with a major focus on maintenance. The Sheridan Neighborhood Association in Minneapolis wanted to provide previous participants with guidance on caring for their raingardens. So we offered a “raingarden refresh” program. During a one-and-a-half-hour visit, we checked a participant’s…

Jumping Worms: Be on the Lookout

  (Photo: Jumping Worm, Flickr, Alfredo Eloisa | CC BY-NC-SA) Jumping worms are relatively new to Minnesota, but they can quickly damage lawns, plants and soil.  They look very much like common earthworms, but they have a characteristic way of moving — they may appear to be jumping — when disturbed. They have been described…

Instagram Links

Who We Are Join our mailing list Metro Blooms Design + Build Consultations Metro Blooms Design+Build Portfolio Donate Video: Gardening with CLCLT Homeowners Racket Article: 60+ MN Orgs Working to Make the Next 4 Years Suck Less Blue Thumb Blog Post: Local Grants for Native Plantings New Blog Post: What is Sustainable Landcare Training? Blue…

Brook Gardens

We started working with the Brook Gardens community in 2019. Community members were co-creators in this project to create more resilient and livable outdoor spaces. Residents set priorities for the…  Read More

Our Roots, Our Work

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…