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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…

park with beautiful plantings and walking path

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

Winter Community Coffee Chat

February 27, 2024  8:30am or 6:30pm Pour yourself a warm beverage and join us for a virtual gathering. We’ll share about our journey in environmental justice. Hear from some of our trusted partners and from our environmental justice coordinators, who will share examples of how we partner with communities. You’ll meet: Laura Scholl, President +…

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

Landscape Redesign: Working With the Community

Inviting a community’s residents to be part of redesigning their landscape helps to create outdoor space more responsive to their needs and increases the likelihood of their stewardship of the space. Currently Metro Blooms is on this journey with tenants at Brook Gardens, a rental community in Brooklyn Park where we recently finished our first…

Volunteer

We are a mission-based organization dedicated to resilient landscapes, and volunteers provide a meaningful impact in the work we do. From time to time, we can use support to help us with planting, maintenance and landcare (such as pulling weeds), and with administrative tasks such as mailings, office support or tabling at events. Opportunities to…

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.

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.

Brooklyn Park residents helping install the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center plantings.

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

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 about our work

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…

Landcare training participant weeding

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…

Man holding award

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…

More Ways to Give

The work to protect Minnesota’s lakes and rivers, to support pollinators, and to create resilient landscapes in all of our communities starts with each of us. We are planting the seeds for a more sustainable future. Thank you for supporting our work with a gift.

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.

The back of a person at computer looking at the screen

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.

Group of people planting a corner garden in parking lot

Minneapolis Blooming Boulevards 2023

We partnered with environmental justice communities in Minneapolis to create pollinator-friendly boulevard rain gardens. Thirty projects were installed at residential and community sites, including six rain gardens near the former…  Read More

sculptural wall planter with new plants

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…

red planter with native flowers near red pergola

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…