Tree Tour at Horton Park Arboretum on Community Garden Day 8/11

Horton Park Community Native Plant Gardens to take part in Community Garden Day 2012!

You are invited to visit Horton Park on Sunday, August 11th, as part of the Twin Cities wide Community Garden Day.  Come and enjoy free refreshments, music, and tours of the gardens and arboretum.  You will get to see the latest blooms and butterflies in the gardens and may even get a chance pitch in!  

Event Time: 11:30-2pm (tree tour at 11:30)

Street Address: 1383 Minnehaha Ave W, St. Paul

Also note: Midway Greenspirit Garden is also open from 11am-3pm! Make a plan to traverse Hamline Ave in the Midway to reach both gardens.  At Greenspirit, you will find an interactive garden show-and-tell  where gardeners have provided reflection on their plots and experience and demos on their foodshelf donations, beehive and growing peppers.  See this link for details.

Arboretum Tour
Over 60 new trees were planted in the park at an Arbor Day event this year by the city and the Friends of Horton Park to greatly expand the park's role as an arboretum.  Come at 11:30 to get a tree tour hosted by a St. Paul forester. It's a great way to learn about trees that do well in our area.

 Garden Tour
The neighborhood group Friends of Horton Park maintains the community native plant gardens at Horton Park.  We have native oak savanna, shade, and prairie gardens planted and maintained by volunteers with the support of the St. Paul Parks Department.  Our gardens provide a wonderful place to learn about gardening with plants native to Minnesota, which are often beautiful, easy to maintain, and provide nectar and seeds for native insects and birds.  Garden tours will be offered as requested between noon and 2 pm.

About The Friends of Horton Park
The Friends of Horton Park maintains the Native Plant Gardens at Horton Park.  We have native oak savanna, shade, and prairie gardens planted by volunteers with the support of the St. Paul Parks Department and neighborhood volunteers. Our gardens are a great place to learn about gardening with plants native to Minnesota, which are often beautiful, easy to maintain, and provide nectar and seeds for native insects and birds.

For More Info: hortonpark @ gmail.com

Discounted Rainbarrels Available - Order Now!

Residents of Hamline Midway and neighboring communities are now eligible to receive rain barrels at a significant discount!  Choose from four different styles.

To receive this deal, you must:

• Be a resident of the Capitol Region Watershed District.
• Complete the order form and submit it with propert payment to: Hamline Midway Coalition, 1558 W. Minnehaha Ave, St. Paul, MN 55104.  Make checks payable to HMC.
• Attend a rain barrel and stormwater management workshop, 4:00 – 5:30pm, Saturday, June 2 at Newell Park (900 N. Fairview Ave). Participants will learn how to build, install, and maintain their rain barrel, as well as other techniques for stormwater management.
• Transport your rain barrel home at the end of the workshop.
• The workshop will be part of the Hamline Midway Heartwood Festival's Green Living Workshops. The festival runs from 11am-6pm in Newell Park, so come early to enjoy the festivities!

Please Note:

1.  Orders must be received by 5:00pm, Monday, May 21. Form is here 

2.  There is a limit of one (1) barrel per household.

3.  NO REFUNDS will be provided if you order a barrel but are unable to attend the workshop.

4.  A maximum of 50 barrels are available through this offer, so don’t delay!

This offer is made possible by Hamline Midway Coalition and the Hamline Midway Environmental Group, with funding from the Capitol Region Watershed District.

HMEG night at the library: Seed swap, winter sowing, and screening of 'Taking Root'

Beat the winter blues and get inspired for a new growing season! Bring your seed collection and catalogs to share. Trade seeds for an exciting new specimen to grow, peer through seed catalogs, learn how you can plant those seeds in the winter (winter sowing) and then take in a film about how planting trees transformed a nation. TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy. Learn more about the film at: http://takingrootfilm.com/.

Wednesday February 22, 2011 at the Hamline Midway branch library auditorium

• 5:30-6:15 Seed exchange and winter sowing demo.
• 6:15-7:45 Film
• 7:45-8:00 Wrap-up/clean-up

Come to all or part of the evening! This event has free admission and will have light refreshments; Do bring your own covered beverage container and bowl to reduce waste. (However, if you plan to be there from seed time to film ending, you may want to bring along a bit more nourishment.)

A note for parents- This event is intended mostly for adults. This film may not be suitable for children (some violence, recounting history of Kenya). Please do your due diligence before bringing your kids.

This event is brought to you by the Hamline Midway Environmental Group (www.HMEG.org), Hamline Midway Library Association, U of MN Master Gardeners, Mississippi Market, and is part of the community events/education offered by Hamline Midway's new Local Food Resource Hub

Taking Root: Beginner Gardening Series located in the Hamline Midway neighborhood

A great opportunity for HM-ites and near neighbors! Be sure to spread the news about this beginning gardener class series for new gardeners happens over 6-classes in the garden through an entire growing season. One class held approximately each month between May & October. Instructors are Courtney and Nate, both from the Midway & Frogtown neighborhoods.

Location:

SPROUT Garden—behind the house located at
1471 Minnehaha Ave W, St. Paul

Cost: $60 for the 6-class series

See Gardening Matters website for more info and registration: http://www.gardeningmatters.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=15


Taking Root is a beginning gardener class series for new gardeners interested in growing their own food. This hands-on 6 class series takes place in the garden, and brings you through an entire growing season in Minnesota, with a class held approximately once a month between May and October.

Offered at the SPROUT community garden in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood on Minnehaha Ave in St. Paul, Hamline-Midway, Frogtown and other neighborhood residents are welcome and encourage to attend!

Taught by experienced growers and neighborhood residents Nathan Schrecengost of Pig’s Eye Urban Farm and Courtney Tchida of Cornercopia Student Organic Farm.

• Session 1: Sunday May 15th 3:00 -4:30pm Garden Planning, Bed Preparation and Early Planting
  

• Session 2: Saturday June 11th 3:00 -4:30pm, Planting, Mulching and Garden Maintenance
  

• Session 3: Saturday July 16th 3:00-4:30pm, Planting for fall harvest, crop rotation, and harvest techniques
  

• Session 4: Saturday August 6th 3:00-4:30 pm, Harvesting, Growing problem solving Q &A
  

• Session 5: Saturday September 10th 3:00-4:30pm, Food Preservation & Putting a garden to bed
  

• Session 6: Saturday October 8th 3:00-4:30pm, Orchard Fruits, Bees and Vermicomposting

Gardening for Bees: Library Lecture now arranged by Xerces and HMEG

Gardening for Bees: Pollinators are essential to the health of our ecosystem and also to the integrity of our food supply. Elaine Evans from the University of Minnesota and the Xerces Society will present information on how your garden can benefit from having a healthy pollinator population. You will also learn what steps to take to encourage native pollinators in our gardens. Made possible by the Hamline Midway Environmental Group (www.hmeg.org) and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (www.xerces.org).

Note, this lecture is part of the Library's spring gardening series.

Date: March 2nd, 2011
Time: 6:30-7:30 pm
Location: Hamline Midway Library

Elaine Evans Conservation Consultant, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR, and PhD Candidate at the University of Minnesota. She completed her B.S. in Biology in 1993 from Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA and her M.S. in Entomology at the U of M, St. Paul, 2001, where she studied the impact of floral resource competition between honey bees and bumble bees on the reproductive success of native bumble bees as well as tomato and cranberry pollination and bumble bee rearing. A summary of bumble bee rearing is in the book ―Befriending Bumble Bees: A Guide to Raising Local Bumble Bees. (ALA Godort 2008 Notable Government Document Award Winner) She also authored a chapter on bumble bee pollination in a forthcoming book on bees by fellow Xerces staff member Eric Mader. The focus of her work is to promote conservation of native pollinators. Elaine has worked as a Conservation Consultant for the Xerces Society, a non-profit insect conservation organization, where she worked for Xerces since 2007 studying declining North American Bombus populations. She is currently studying native bee populations in North Dakota.

Some labels for your plant swap transplants

This Saturday is the Hamline Midway Plant Swap! Have you started collecting some plant divisions and seeds for trade? To facilitate swapping, we have a pre-made label for you. Try to fill out as much as possible, but its OK if there is missing information.

To download a pdf sheet of 6 labels go here:
http://tinyurl.com/HMEGplant-labels

We will see you at the swap!

First Annual Hamline Midway Plant Swap

Sat, October 2, 10am – 2pm

	At the Hamline Park Building (SE corner of Snelling & Lafond)

The importance of native pollinators

The importance of native pollinators as posted on MidPoint Green

The Midway community gardens are hatching a plan for the August event called the Parade of Community gardens on 8/21/2010. Its too soon to let you know about all the fun details, but it will involve six Midway community garden sites, and will give visitors a peek at pollinators. Even in our urban area, pollinators are vital. In this photo, my Leadplant is being visited by bees. at the Midway Greenspirit garden, the beehive there are increasing yields of tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, strawberries, , raspberries, apples, melons, sunflowers, pumpkins, plums, and squash both in the garden and for miles around. Native pollinators can be even more efficient at the job, such as bumblebees increasing yields even more. The Xerces Society is an organization looking into the importance of invertebrates. Below is some quality information from Xerces on how to encourage native pollinators which were developed for roadsides. While a small residential urban yard may need to be selective from this list of practices, most are applicable for our cities too. I see it in my own yard and in my community gardens regularly. Xerces research show that using native plants in a landscape can double the number of bee counts and increase the types of bees found there by 35%. So you want to get the most out of your food production gardens? Plant for the bees too!


From Xerces:

Eighty-seven of the world’s 124 most commonly cultivated crops are insect/animal pollinated. Between 60 to 80% of the world’s 250,000 flowering plants depend on animals for pollination.
In the United States, the National Research Council (2007) reported noteworthy losses of both managed and wild pollinators. Habitat loss, pesticide use, diseases, parasites, and the spread of invasive species are the major causes of pollinator decline. Threats to pollinator communities affect not only pollinators themselves but also natural ecosystems and agricultural productivity.


Key design factors & practices to enhance flower diversity for bee habitat around farms, gardens or roadsides include:

Planting choices
1) Use native wildflowers and grasses, with high densities of flowers.
2) Plant a minimum of 3 blooming plant species during each season.
3) Aim for season-long blooming plants, early and late season blooming plants are especially important.
4) Plant a range of wildflowers of varying colors and shapes. Bees mainly visit blue, white, yellow, and purple flowers.
5) Plant flowers in single species clumps for best results.

Providing Nest Sites
6) Warm season, clump-forming grasses provide bumble bee nest sites.
7) Have a mix of forbs and shrubs.
8) Don’t mow or hay entire grassy meadows or roadsides, leave some for pollinators.
9) Conserve habitat for rabbit burrows and groundhog burrows for bee nesting sites.
10) Reduce tillage and avoid plastic sheeting for ground nesting bees.

Reducing the Impact of Mowing and Spraying
11) Intensive mowing or grazing impacts abundance of bees.
12) Avoid or minimize the use of insecticides.

Permaculture Research Institute offering classes nearby the Midway

"Permaculture Research Institute-Cold Climate" is certainly a mouthful, but they are in important volunteer supported organization here in the Twin Cities who teach sustainable small scale food production. Their instructors are well practiced and have a lot to share. I am profiling their current offerings here for a couple of reasons.

First off, they have a class series running in Frogtown starting this week, which is much closer for Midwayites than their usual venues. Secondly, this series is being taught by fellow HMEGer, Courtney Tchida! Courtney promised us last year she would get a St. Paul class series going and happily that has worked.

Note, PRI classes are not free. There may be some scholarship arrangements for some of their classes. However, these classes are an investment and will arm you with enough information to gain a return on your investment.

Below is the information recently sent by PRI to their email subscribers:

April 13, 20, 27 6-8:30 PM and May 4,11 6-8:30 PM Learn small-scale techniques for growing food in urban areas, for your own family’s use or for urban markets. In response to widespread demand, we are repeating this updated Urban Farming series taught by Courtney Tchida. Basics of Organic Growing, Biointensive Growing, SPIN Farming, Field Layout & Design for Production, and Marketing Strategies & Options … choose any or all! $15 per class ($20 at the door) or all 5 for $60. (Click a course topic above for more details and registration.) __________ May 1 9 AM - 4 PM In one day, learn all you need to successfully grow food in our cold temperate climate, with special focus on urban gardens and African crop varieties. $60 more details

April 16 7-9 PM Lecture by entomologist Neil Cunningham gives an overview of biological strategies for insect management in edible landscapes. $15 April 17 9AM - 3PM Neil Cunningham and Dan Halsey lead a day of combined classroom and hands-on experience. Learn more about options for organic and biological pest controls and how they work. Design and install habitat for beneficial insects. $35 Receive a $5 discount when you register for both the lecture and the workshop! more details __________ May 15 1-5 PM Join others in the Twin Cities area as we continue to shape the permaculture collaborative's role within PRI Cold Climate and bring small groups together around specific permaculture projects. Free and open to all. more details

See all Upcoming Events on the front page left column of the PRI Cold Climate website.

Rain barrel and compost bin sale on now through the Recycling Association of Minnesota

Rain barrels and/or compost bins are available for Twin Cities residents to purchase from the Recycling Association of Minnesota. For those folks living in the Hamline Midway, you can also take the additional CRWD discount found here (pdf).
Order by 4/22/2010 to pick up at the Living Green Expo at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand North Parking Lot
May 1, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. or May 2, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Accepting orders until April 22, 2010.

Compost Bin Available $55

The Earth Machine Dimensions: 33" x 33" Capacity: 10 cubic feet

Rain Barrel Styles Available:

Both styles $65

The Rain Catcher Dimensions: 24" W x 34" H Capacity: 54 gallons

	The Systern Dimensions: 34" H, 26.1" in diameter Capacity: 55 gallons

Payment by credit card only. Prices listed above do not include sales tax.

Rebates offered for residents residing in: -Capitol Region Watershed District -Ramsey-Washington Watershed District To find out more, CLICK HERE (pdf).

DIRECTIONS FOR ORDERING: -ST. PAUL (Living Green Expo): May 1-2 (pdf)