As mid-May surprises us with it’s vigor and business, so does the Spring weeds! Here’s some tips and pics for starting the year in control of the gardener’s ancient nemesis. Watch for these weeds popping up uninvited in your garden:
Dandelions: If you can, trowel up the entire taproot. But at least snip the heads while they’re freshly yellow and puffy.
Posted in Raingarden Tips and Tricks
Tagged weeds
A well-kept raingarden ready for spring, but just a bit too soon for vibrant colors... what to do?
Ever get that pre-Mother’s Day planting itch? Early Spring is a great time to sneak a bit of color into your garden before the bulk of the plants start blooming! By planting early blooming bulbs, perennials, or trees around the perimeters of the raingarden, you’ll extend it’s color life up to a month!
Posted in Raingarden Tips and Tricks
Tagged Early Spring, Tips
Metro Blooms with Sentyrz Supermarket on WCCO 4 News, 4/18/2012
Lead Landscape Designer Michael Keenan recently spoke for Metro Blooms in North Minneapolis for WCCO News. Michael highlighted the Sentyrz Supermarket raingarden and explained the fundamentals of raingardens and how they help the Mississippi River. Happy Earth Week!
Posted in General News/Events
Tagged WCCO
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 rich in community initiative. The Earth Day project will complete PPL’s renovation of an affordable apartment building at 2521 Girard Ave N. The housing building is part of PPL’s work in the Minneapolis Foreclosure Recovery Plan,which is supported by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Read more
Posted in General News/Events
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 audience, understanding their needs and interests. Here’s a summary of the strongest findings using Pearson’s Correlations to keep you in the loop… (sparing the extensive excel spreadsheets!)
Posted in General News/Events
Tagged Survey
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 and the Seward Montessori School Magnet. These projects indeed don’t stop at the raingarden themselves. Both promise a high level of initiative and enthusiasm to bring the raingardens to a higher level of education and community involvement.
Posted in General News/Events
Tagged 2012, Seward Montessori, Urban Homeworks
Family: Cyperaceae (Sedge) Family
Scientific Name: Carex vulpinoidea
Native cool-season perennial sedge that grows up to 3 ft high. Grows in wet, moist meadows, marshes, lake shores, stream sides, and road sides.
Watch for: Dense clumps of sedges with a brown seed head that resembles a fox’s tail. Blooms May to July. Leaves are generally longer than the stem. Remember: “Sedges have edges” on the stem.
Other names: Brown Fox Sedge, Common Fox Sedge
Posted in The Flora Forum
Family: Asteraceae
Scientific Name: Aster novae-angliae
As a prime example of a native plant which is highly cultivated, this entry will look at both. New England Aster is a very common and native perennial herb which favors upland moist to saturated conditions. Purple Dome Aster is a close cultivar of it’s New England predecessor, but is smaller and better suited to gardens. Both Asters flower from late summer into fall until the frost.
Posted in The Flora Forum
Family: Asteracea (Sunflower)
Scientific name: Eupatorium perfoliatum
Native perennial wildflower from 2-4 ft tall. Prefers low, moist to wet soils with plenty of organic material, with full to partial sun.
Watch for: The stem is covered with white hairs and forms branches at the top. Leaves are opposite along the stem and tend to grow together. Clusters of white flowers appear in late summer to early fall.
Other names: Throughwort, Wild Sage, Ague Weed, Feverwort, Vegetable Antimony Read more
Posted in The Flora Forum
Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower)
Scientific Name: Echinacea angustifolia
Perennial herb up to 2 ft tall, established predominately on the great plains, in dry upland prairies, often in rocky soil.
Watch for: Long, alternate leaves and a large cone-shaped flower with ray petals. Center crowns of flower large and circular, similar to Black-eyed Susans.
Other names: Comb Flower, Snakeroot, Kansas Snakeroot, Scurvy Root, Hedge Hog, Echinaecea. Read more
Posted in The Flora Forum
Tagged Plants, Purple Coneflower
