Spring in the Horton Park wildflower gardens

The native plants in the wildflower gardens at Horton Park have been behaving as if it was spring for weeks now, even though we all doubted the season until now. In the shade garden, there are false rue anemones blooming and the leaves of common trout lilies showing. These two plants are spring ephemerals, meaning they have only a few short weeks in the spring to send up leaves, bloom, and fruit before it all goes away and energy gets stored in their specialized roots until next year, when they do it all again! This is a strategy to take advantage of the light before the forest canopy greens up and blocks much of the light from reaching the forest floor. Other wildflowers blooming in the shade garden are large-flowered bellwort, downy yellow violet, and wild ginger. In the prairie "sign" garden on Hamline and Minnehaha, there are lovely big patches of prairie smoke and pussytoes in bloom.

Our next gardening date is Monday, May 16th, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. After that, we switch to our regular schedule of second Sundays from noon to 2:00 pm. Join us!

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

Horton Park gardening this Friday!

We are holding our first gardening day at Horton Park this Friday, April 29th, from 10:00 am to noon, a different day than usual because of all the weekend spring holidays this year. We will be raking leaves, clipping dried vegetation from last year, and digging weeds. If you can bring clippers, rakes, a wheelbarrow, and/or your favorite digging tool, please do - otherwise just show up. We should be seeing the earliest spring blooms in the gardens - bloodroot, pussytoes, and prairie smoke will likely be visible. Please join us if you can - it may be the only sunny day this week!

Please fill out HMEG survey about emerging initiatives & meeting alternatives

HMEG is likely faced with needing to move our meeting night and venue! Please help us ID some meeting options and learn which emerging projects pique your interest. It's only a dozen questions. Many thanks for your assistance.

Two Compost Bin and Rain Barrel Sales for Ramsey County Residents

Ramsey County is offering two upcoming sales for compost bins and rain barrels at reduced prices. By composting organic waste (vegetable scraps and yard waste) and capturing rainwater from the roof, you can reduce the need for expensive fertilizers, reduce your water bill, help keep waterways clean, and reduce waste. The Recycling Association of Minnesota will have its sale in Saint Paul on April 30 and May 1 (pre-registration required). The City of Roseville, in partnership with several other cities in Ramsey County, will have its sale on May 7. For more information, see below.

Please note: These types of compost bin offerings usually happen only once in a year.

Rain Barrel and Compost Bin SALE!

Order now to pick up at the
Rock Tenn Paper Mill-St. Paul April 30th & May 1st!
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. each day.
Accepting orders until sold out.
Hurry, while supplies last!

Compost Bin Available

$55

The Earth Machine

Dimensions: 33" x 33"

Capacity: 10 cubic feet

Rain Barrel Styles Available

Both styles $69

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.

City of Roseville Bin & Barrel Sale
Website for the 1 Day Sale

Saturday, May 7, 2011
9:00 - 3:00 pm (or earlier if sold out)

Roseville City Hall
2660 Civic Center Drive
Directions

Help yourself, help your wallet and help your earth at the same time.

Purchase a rainbarrel and/or compost bin at our one day truckload sale Saturday, May 7 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm (or until sold out) at Roseville City Hall, 2660 Civic Center Drive.

Compost bins will be $45 and rainbarrels $55. There will also be kitchen collector pails ($7) and compost turning tools ($15) available to purchase as well.

Food scraps such as fruit and vegetable wastes, breads, pastas, grains, coffee grounds, egg shells, and tea bags as well as weeds, non-woody shrub trimmings, faded flowers, and vines are among the things you can put into your compost instead of your garbage. Compost can be used as mulch and plant food in your yard. Keeping organic waste out of your garbage reduces your trash volume so you could switch to a smaller garbage cart.

Capture rain in a rainbarrel and have a free source of water for your garden. In addition to saving you money, rainbarrels can keep moisture away from your foundation and prevent debris from washing into our storm sewers.

For more information contact Recycling Coordinator Tim Pratt.

HMEG and Mississippi Market to screen the film "Lunch Line"

Join us for a screening of the film Lunch Line on Wednesday, March 9 at 6 p.m. at the Hamline-Midway Public Library, 1558 W. Minnehaha Ave.

Lunch Line (http://lunchlinefilm.com/) portrays the story of six kids from a tough Chicago neighbor­hood working to fix school lunch. Their journey parallels the dramatic trans­formation of school lunch from a weak patchwork of local anti-hunger efforts to a robust national feeding program. Along the way, Senators, Secretaries of Agriculture, entrepreneurs, and activists from across the political spectrum add top-down perspective to a bottom-up film about the American political process, the health and welfare of its future, and the realities of feeding more than 31 million children a day.

This event is being sponsored by the Hamline-Midway Environmental Group and Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op. All are welcome to attend. If you plan to attend the film, please RSVP with the number attending to 651-690-0507 or info@msmarket.coop to reserve your seat. There is limited space in the library auditorium. Mississippi Market will be serving organic popcorn!

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.