Garden Directory: Minneapolis Community Gardens
Click on a point below to
find out more about an individual community garden.
Contact
GardenWorks to see how you can get a plot.
Accord Garden
Van Cleve Park-15th St & Como Ave, Minneapolis
Beautification
Refresh yourself at the Accord Community Garden, located at the foot of the towering wind chime sculpture from which it gets its name. This small but unique native plant garden is a restful spot in the SE Como neighborhood, with benches overlooking the grasses and flowers. The sculpture sings a low, throaty song whenever the wind blows; even without wind, it gives a mini-concert at noon, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 PM. Join us every third Saturday, 10:00 – 12 noon, April through October, to work, enjoy, and learn about native plant gardening.
Camden Gateway Garden
42nd Ave N and Lyndale Ave N, Minneapolis
Beautification
The Camden Gateway Sculpture Garden began when neighbors wanted to replace abandoned buildings with garden space. In a collaboration between gardeners, neighborhood organizations, Minneapolis and it’s Arts Council, a Minneapolis Gateway was born. Zoran Moisilov’s stone sculptures were installed in 1996 and the new Camden Garden Club offered to plant and maintain the gardens. NRP money helped purchase a watering system four years later, and the perennials and trees have flourished since. The large block-long garden is a flowing river of grass with mounds on either side representing the Mississippi River and city of Minneapolis. We are truly tied together by our river.
Common Ground Community Garden
5151 & 5159 Newton Ave N, Minneapolis
Beautification, Food Production, Individual plots
Como Corner Community Garden
1000 22nd Ave SE, Minneapolis
Beautification
Como Corner Community Garden is definitely not its usual self these days. Despite the BNSF Bridge rebuild that occupies half the site, gardeners are working the soil! Started in 1992 by volunteers who converted this previously weedy and unbuildable lot to a volunteer-supported “park” and restful bus stop where pedestrians and bikers find respite on its bench.
Dowling Community Garden
46th Avenue at 39th Street, Minneapolis
Youth programming, Food Production, Food Donation, Individual plots
Dowling Community Garden began in 1943 when subsistence gardens were planted during World War II and is one of two known "Victory Gardens" remaining in the U.S. Dowling contains over 180 plots, serving more than 250 gardeners. Dowling's special focus is preserving older varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers through educational outreach and seed-saving. We offer an heirloom plant sale in May, present Heirloom Festival in August, maintain a demonstration garden and contribute seeds to international seed-saving organizations. We distribute produce to food shelves, and have installed flower gardens for the community to enjoy. Come visit us! www.DowlingCommunityGarden.org
Dowling Community Garden has won two awards: Minnesota State Horticultural Society's 2003 award for "Excellence in Community Vegetable Gardening" and 2006 first place winner for Minneapolis Blooms.
Gateway Community Garden
SW corner of 12th Ave SE & E Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
Beautification
The “Gateway Community Garden,” named because it is the “gateway” to the SE Como neighborhood, has joined University students, elderly residents, and young children since its inception in 2002. Through the efforts and donations of neighbors, SECIA staff, MN Green, and the Tree Trust, the site has been transformed to an award-winning and beloved community garden. We gather here for garden nights, ice-cream socials, and National Night Out parties where garden art projects often occur. Our goals are to beautify the neighborhood, give traffic a reason to pause, and inspire neighbors to slow down and connect.
Hale, Page, Diamond Lake Community Garden
49th Street and Bloomington Ave, Minneapolis
Beautification
Hawthorne Community Garden
2826 North 4th Street, Minneapolis
Youth programming, Horticultural Therapy, Beautification, Education,
Food Production, Individual plots
Hawthorne Neighborhood Garden sits on the site of a former crack house demolished around 1995. Neighbors fought city hall for years to establish this lot as an official community garden; we succeeded in 2002, when ownership passed from MCDA to the Sustainable Resource Center. The lot is 41’ X 150’ and contains vegetable and flower beds, lawns, and a few follies; about a dozen neighbors participate. Enter through the front gate—if you can find it under the grape vines. A few plots are available each year for experienced or amateur gardeners (assigned on a first-come basis).
I-94 and Dowling Garden
I-94 and Dowling Avenue North, Minneapolis
Beautification
The southbound ramp at I-94 and Dowling in North Minneapolis is a Camden Garden Club site designed and planted as a Japanese garden in 1998. It was remodeled in 2005 to be more carefree; Garden Club members and MNDOT personnel volunteered over two weekends to prep the soil, transplant thyme, and install 200 bushes and trees including Japanese Tree Lilac, Swiss Stone Pine, Tinkerbelle Korean Lilac, Autumn Magic Glossy Black Chokeberry and Goldflame Spirea. The garden’s focal points are weeping spruce and cherry trees and a stone turtle sunning itself in a bed of thyme and sedum.
JD
Rivers' Children's Garden
Glenwood Ave. & Washburn Ave. N. in Minneapolis
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board owns, operates and programs the one-acre JD Rivers’ Children’s Garden located in Theodore Wirth Park. Since 1982 the garden has provided programs focused on food production with children and teens, horticulture therapy, and intergenerational programming with recent immigrants. Garden plots are assigned to youth participating in on-site summer programs. Youth participants also engage in hands-on environmental education programs such as insect safaris, birding, water quality education, fishing, and much more. Visit www.minneapolisparks.org for more information on summer programs and garden plots.
Jordan Community Garden
1722 26th Avenue North, Minneapolis
Beautification, Education, Food Production
Established in 2002, the Jordan Community Garden has beautified the neighborhood, promoted cross-cultural interaction, connected youth with their food source, provided a watchful eye, and demonstrated landscaping possibilities. Located in a vacant lot on the corner of a drug dealing corridor, the garden is a powerful sign of community. The Jordan Area Community Council purchased the lot from the city (for $1). Plantings focus on native perennials, and one-third of the garden is vegetables. The garden has a meeting area and several donated fixtures. Neighborhood kids painted a sign; artists donated metal sculptures and a peace pole.
Lincoln School Peace Garden
Penn Ave N and 12th Ave N, Minneapolis
Youth programming, Beautification
Loring Schoolyard
Garden / Kids Cook
2600 44th Ave N (south of Loring School at Thomas Avenue and 44th Avenue
N)
Youth Programming, Individual Plots
Gardens welcome students and their families, teachers and the community to Loring Elementary school. Two butterfly beds and a shade garden were planted in 2004. This same year Kids Cook began as an after-school enrichment program for 4th and 5th grade students. The Kids Cook curriculum inspires students to cook and explore fresh, nutritious ingredients, and to learn where our food comes from. In 2006 Kids Cook planted vegetables, herbs, and berry patch. The students and their families, the neighborhood and community have cultivated this garden. Together we celebrate with gardening and potluck garden picnics made with the produce from the garden. A native prairie was planted in 2007. We hope many lessons sprout from our garden!
Mulberry Junction
22rd Ave NE and California St NE, Minneapolis
Youth Programming, Beautification, Food Production, Food Donation,
Individual plots
Tucked away in a quiet corner of NE Mpls, Mulberry Junction Community Garden was established in 1996 by artists from the adjacent California Building. Our garden land is slated for development, but the garden was spared by the bulldozers for another year. The grassy picnic circle is a peaceful spot to enjoy our mature perennial and native gardens. Rocks and bricks from a former building trace the boundaries of thirty-five vegetable plots tended by a diverse array of gardeners.
O.W.L.S. Community Garden
Behind 819 Weeks Ave SE along RR tracks, Minneapolis
Food Donation, Individual Plots
Patrick Henry Oak Savanna Garden
4320 Newton Ave N, Minneapolis
Youth Programming, Food Donation
The Patrick Henry Oak Savanna Garden is a demonstration garden, presenting a snapshot of this native Minnesota plant community, once occupying this Twin Cities area, where prairie met big woods. Designed and maintained by the students of Patrick Henry, this garden is part of a larger neighborhood effort to beautify and restore public spaces.
Richfield Community Garden
28th Avenue S and County Rd 62 (58 1/2 St), Minneapolis
Food Production, Individual Plots
Wood Lake Nature Center has managed a community garden since 1980. Originally sited on land taken by the north-south runway, the garden was relocated to Minneapolis Airport Commission (MAC) land; we were even fortunate enough to have the good soil moved there from the old site. We obtain a water permit yearly from the city, so it is truly a community garden since many communities help us. Wells Fargo Bank co-sponsors us and helps cover the costs of water, a portable toilet, and waste disposal. There are 192 plots, 15 X 20 feet each, with fourteen water spigots.
Sheila Wellstone Peace Garden
3350 N. 4th Street, Minneapolis (back by the fence)
Youth programming, Horticultural Therapy, Beautification
The Sheila Wellstone Peace Garden was established in 2004 in a partnership between the McKinley Community, Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, Cityview School and the Sheila Wellstone Foundation. The garden serves as an education tool to the school and several youth programs, a gathering space for the partnership members and a food producer for all of the partners involved. The purpose of the garden is to promote peace and cohesion to all people.
Sheridan Ave Community Garden
Sheridan Ave N at Oak Park Ave N, Minneapolis
Youth programming, Horticultural Therapy, Beautification
Shoreham Community Garden
600 block of 27th Ave NE, Minneapolis
Individual Plots
The Shoreham Community Garden is tucked in the heart of Northeast Minneapolis, in the Holland neighborhood. On leased space from CP Rail, the garden flourishes at one end of a landscaped avenue with a volunteer-built tot lot on the other. In addition to the plots lush with zinnias, cosmos, tomatoes, strawberries, and corn we have a small orchard – pears, plums, and cherries – that we maintain collectively. Along the fence are lilacs, yarrow, and other favorites. Be our guest: relax at the picnic table under the grapevine arbor and meet Northeast residents who consider the garden a home away from home.
Triangle Garden
42nd & Humboldt Ave N, Minneapolis
Beautification
A triangle of cracked cement and ugly weeds in the middle of an odd intersection was removed by a Minneapolis city crew in 1997 at the request of the Camden Garden Club. The Triangle Garden was created with rescued flowers from neighborhood houses scheduled to be moved, plants donated through Minnesota Green, and perennials from the yards of garden club members and friends. Triangle Garden plants include: peony, columbine, Missouri primrose, hardy geranium, iris, phlox, hollyhock, shrub rose, yarrow, Oriental lilies and one Pasque flower. We enjoy the “thank-yous” from passersby while weeding in this pleasant garden.
Van Cleve Park "Green Thumb"
Cutting Garden
Van Cleve Park, Minneapolis
Youth Programming
Waite Park Community Garden
Johnson St and 36th Ave NE, NW corner, Minneapolis
Beautification, Food Production, Individual Plots
West Calhoun Community Garden
31st Street and Chowen Ave S, Minneapolis
Beautification
Phone: (612) 278-7123 - info@gardenworksMN.org