Como Park Lutheran Church is hosting it’s annual MN Food Share food drive in their parking lot on Sunday March 17th 12-2pm at the corner of Hamline and Hoyt. Last year Minnesotans experiencing food insecurity visited area food shelves 7.5 million times! Your help is needed and CPLC is making it easy with a drive up and donate event. See the items that are needed on the flyer and while you’re there pick up seeds and growing information for the Como Grow a Row campaign. Help us supply our neighbors with fresh locally grown nutritious fruits, vegetables, and herbs during this growing season.

For more information contact Sue Brogger at Sue@comoparklutheran.org

or Dawn Lamm (dlamm@comoseedlibrary) with any questions.

It’s time to get your hands in the soil and propagate some prairie plant joy for your pollinator gardens with this oh so easy method called winter sowing!

We”ll have seeds , soil, other materials  and a limited supply of containers. To make sure there’s enough for everyone, please bring any clean translucent plastic containers like: 

Quart size take-out containers 

Milk jugs Liter or larger water or beverage containers 

Greens containers

Limited to 30

Registration Required

Registration link: https://forms.gle/ky6eEQPrdSqk7sYM9

Volunteer form link: https://forms.gle/fHYW8jZsFXjVE5qZ6

Join Parks and Rec and the Como Community Council for a Pancake Breakfast and Winter Activities at North Dale Recreation Center. Try snowshoeing, cross country skiing and skating before you warm up with a bonfire and s’mores. After all the fun outside, head inside for a pancake breakfast (sponsored and served by Bethel Lutheran), neighborhood resources, Now Make Art kids activity and, new this year, A LOCAL MAKER’S MARKET!

Como Community Seed Library will have seeds to check out and ways to get growing now!

It’s time for the National Seed Swap Day Seed Swap 2024!  

National Seed Swap Day

Saturday 1/27/24

1-3 pm

Historic Como Streetcar Station

1224 Lexington Pkwy N.

St. Paul MN 55117

Join us for an epic seed trading session with your neighbors! Everyone is welcome from the newest gardeners to veteran cultivators!  All seed types are welcome too like native plants, herbs, veggies, annual flowers, perennials, and more. *

Here are a few guidelines to get you started:

For ease of trading we recommend having seeds packaged ready to trade with the suggested following information available for each seed type:

Common Name

Scientific Name(if known)

Date Collected (grown)

Location

Grower/ Collector

Commercial or Locally Grown Seed

Any other pertinent information/ seed story

A picture of the plant/flower/fruit that are from the seeds if you have one.

*Please no patented seed. Here is information on why.

Not sure about packaging? We will have envelopes and other packaging resources available to help you with your seed sharing or check out this link to a creative zero waste option:

https://www.gardensillustrated.com/garden-advice/how-to/make-your-own-seed-packet

This is a free drop in event!

Free limited parking is available in the parking lot and on-street but the streetcar station is easily accessible via the metro transit bus line. No registration is necessary but we encourage you to arrive early for the best seed trade selections!  Masks are welcome. We encourage all participants to consider the health of their neighbors as this is an indoor event.

This wonderfully seedy venture is a collaboration of the District 10 Como Community Council and the Lawns to Legumes Demonstration Neighborhood Grant Educational Fund for the Saint Paullinators of South Como, The MN SEED Project, and Capitol Region Watershed District!

Want to volunteer your time and talents helping with this swap? Sign up here for the opportunities that suit you!

For updates and to share sneak peeks of your seeds follow and share your enthusiasm on Facebook and Instagram

Here are some photos from last year’s National Seed Swap Day Seed Swap

The MN SEED Project will be sharing seeds and winter sowing secrets at the White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Market. For more information check here!

Save the Date for this last of the MN SEED project seed collection events in 2023. Thank you to Frogtown Green for sharing this wonderful large community stewarded garden with the MN SEED Project for late season seed harvesting. For updates and to join the MN SEED Project email MNSEEDProject@gmail.com

Save the Date for this skill-share hosted by Urban Roots! We’ll learn more seed saving hacks and ways to preserve our 2023 collected seed! For updates and to join MNSEED email MNSEEDproject@gmail.com.

Save the date for music, food, local artisan goods and lots more….including seeds!!!!

Join the MN SEED Project at this wonderful family focused event at Gibbs Farm! We’ll have seeds to share and process and other fun shared from the restored prairie! Gibbs farm will have all things apple including samples from their heritage orchard!

Join the MN SEED Project at the newly expanded Capitol Region Watershed District Campus. Thank you to CRWD for hosting the MN SEED project for this 3rd growing season to collect seeds and learn more about this LEED certified campus and how it’s integrated systems demonstrate more eco-friendly practices conserving water and all it sustains. The MN SEED Project is deeply grateful to CRWD for funding our seed to seed community science project and sharing our vision for a locally adapted native seed network! You can register at the new MN SEED Project website for this workshop as well as all other MN SEED Project events or follow this Eventbrite link. MN SEED Project members who reside in the Capitol Region Watershed District receive a discount. Please email MNSEEDproject@gmail.com for the code.

This the first of two opportunities to collect seed at Monarch City this 2023 season. Thank you to Frogtown Green for hosting the MNSEED Project! To register please use the following Eventbrite Link. The MN SEED Project continues it’s work this season with generous funding from Capitol Region Watershed District . Residents of CRWD and the MN SEED Project members please reach out for further information on special CRWD participation opportunities to MNSEEDProject@gmail.com.

Save the date for music, food, local artisan goods and lots more….including seeds!!!!

This MN SEED Seed Collection Event at Gibbs Farm is the first of the 2023 series. This will be our third season collecting seeds in this restored prairie. Thank you to Gibbs Farm and the Ramsey County Historical Society for hosting and generously sharing this wonderful site with the MN SEED Project Community. This year you can register using Eventbrite. Here is the link. The MN SEED Project continues it’s work this season with generous funding from Capitol Region Watershed District . Residents of CRWD and the MN SEED Project members please reach out for further information to MNSEEDProject@gmail.com.

Join The MN SEED Project at the Frogtown Green Climate Carnival for some seedy fun and plant and pollinator tattoo craziness for the whole family!

Have an open pollinated heirloom tomato plant that you’d like to grow again next year? Stop by the CCSL stall and find out the basics of saving seeds from tomatoes and other fleshy fruits. We’ll also have information on Zinnia seed saving and seeds to succession plant for fall harvesting!- Canceled Due to Severe Weather Potential

Save the Date for this Urban Roots Event at Rivoli Bluff! Stay tuned for more details and to sign up for MN SEED email MNSEEDProject@gmail.com

Save the date for music, food, local artisan goods and lots more….including seeds!!!!

Save the date for lots of family fun environmentally friendly activities, demonstrations and ways to connect to a healthier lighter footprint on the only planet we call home! The MN SEED project will have seeds to explore and take home and plant for your pocket prairie or pollinator way station. Stay tuned for more announcements! Follow along on facebook.

Save the date for music, food, local artisan goods and lots more….including seeds!!!!

Drop in for a fix it session focused on garden tools. Learn the best practices for keeping your pruners, hoes and garden shears sharp as well as how to repair or replace worn or broken parts.

Find the MN SEED Project and the Bee Line at the Hamline Elementary Spring Mighty Midway Festival benefiting Hamline Elementary. Enjoy all sorts of family friendly activities, food for sale, and a community Expo.

Ramsey County Master Gardeners are hosting their annual plant sale on May 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Church of the Holy Childhood, 1435 Midway Pkwy, St Paul. 

The sale includes a large selection of native plants, vegetables, favorite and unique varieties of tomatoes, herbs, annual and perennial flowers, houseplants, quality garden gloves, and other great items to get your garden growing strong.  Funds raised support Master Gardener community and youth education programs in Ramsey County. Cash, checks and credit cards accepted. 

For more information, visit www.RamseyMasterGardeners.org/plantsale.

Join us for the 1st meeting of the Zinnia Collective at Merriam Park Library. We’ll share some snacks, seeds and what we plan to do over three years with the easiest to grow and most common of garden flowers, the Zinnia.

Join Como Park District 10 Community Council to tidy up South Como from 2-3pm and then enjoy food, games, and more. The Saint Paullinators will be there to share the latest details for the Front and Jameson pocket prairie installation which is part of the Lawns to Legumes demonstration neighborhood project. Como Community Seed Library will be there sharing seeds and the latest projects and MN SEED fun.

We’re kicking off the 2023 garden season with a free fun filled community event exploring the Power of Flowers!

• Learn a little about the secrets of flowers

• Family Flower Power

• Swap garden tools with your neighbors

• Exchange your excess seed for something new to you

• Taste a variety of local honeys

• Join the Zinnia Collective

• Fight food insecurity with the Como Grow a Row Initiative

• Share your garden stories and knowledge with other green thumb enthusiasts

• And more….

Our deepest gratitude to Como Park Lutheran Church for generously hosting this event!

 Britt Marie Forsberg, master naturalist and UMN educator and Elizabeth Carls, master naturalist volunteer and CWOC board member will act as guides to the Como Woodland Outdoor Classroom and all the early Spring plants emerging before the tree canopy leafs out. Come practice your plant identification skills and see which species take advantage of this very  early brief period of time to bloom. We’ll meet at the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Fireplace at 5:30 and explore from there. Please email MNSEED@Northerngardener.org to save a spot. This event is free and open to our growing community but we do need to hear if you are coming. Tour capacity is 25 participants.

The Como Woodland Outdoor Classroom is a series of trails with 8 Minnesota biomes represented. For more information about CWOC and its resources you can visit their website at http://www.comowoodlandoutdoorclassroom.org/natural-resource-tour.html. Join our MNSEED iNaturalist Community at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mnseed-native-plant-community-science-project

https://fb.me/e/3u3SBmSyP?mibextid=RQdjqZ

D10 Como Park usually co-hosts the Como Park portion of the city’s Regional Parks Cleanup Day.

When: Saturday, April 22, 2023 from 9-11:30am

What: Individuals and groups of all ages come together to pick up litter that has recently become exposed due to the melting snow.

How: Participating is easy! Simply drop by the Como pavilion around 9am on April 22, 2023 to check in and pick up bags and gloves. Borrowed equipment should be returned by 11:30am.

Where (Como Park): Look for our table near the Como Lake Pavilion to sign-in, pick-up some supplies, and debate which part of Como Park is your favorite with one of our helpful volunteer board members.