Greening & Cleaning
We just installed a new native prairie garden/carbon capture garden in the Greenway! View the plant list here: Plant List
Our Vision
We envision a clean, green, urban pathway that is safe and inviting for everyone. To realize our vision, we organize several greening and cleaning initiatives.
- We participate in annual Arbor Day tree plantings, which so far have resulted in more than 5,000 trees and shrubs being planted in the Greenway.
- Our volunteers sweep the trail for glass and also pick up bottles and other trash.
- We encourage and applaud the many public gardens along the Greenway, such as Vera's Garden and the Soo Line Gardens. We also plant our own gardens, such as one we installed in the median on 28th Street.
- Our Adopt-A-Greenway program features local businesses and organizations that "adopt" a section of the corridor and conduct clean-ups.
We also work regularly with the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, who owns the corridor and regularly dispatches clean-up and greening crews in partnership with Tree Trust.
Want to get involved? Contact soren@midtowngreenway.org
More on our Greening Vision...
The Midtown Greenway encompasses a wide variety of environments along its 5.5 miles. The landscape currently varies from wide-open spaces to bounded steep slopes, from sunny to shady stretches, and from sections that abut buildings on the trail level to areas that are enclosed in a trench and green spaces.
Over the years, thousands have participated in beautification projects in the Greenway, either by planting trees for the annual Arbor Day event each spring, to creating and maintaining beautiful, vibrant gardens, to advocating for additional green spaces along the path.
In recent years, the Midtown Greenway Coalition developed a position on using Ecological Design Principles for all plantings along the corridor.
We advocate that plantings:
- Are dynamic and sustainable. Native plants are well adapted to our climate and should require relatively low maintenance once established.
- Conserves or restores native plants of the region – protecting the biological heritage of our state.
- Protects or improves water, soil, air, biodiversity quality – providing food and shelter for wildlife, especially birds and butterflies
- Connects with other green spaces - providing a regional connection for wildlife.
To view the Coalition's Greening resolutions, click here.
We are excited to highlight the various garden and greening projects along the Greenway that are continuously transforming the corridor. The list to the left gives brief descriptions of each project and the partners involved.
We'd also like to take this opportunity to give a big THANK YOU to all the community partners involved in these projects. Their commitment to making the corridor beautiful for us all is appreciated by so many.