Natve plants & Science & Joy & Community & Learning & Teaching & Soils & Water & Sounds & Air & Wind & Textures & Smells & Owls & Coyotes & Laughter & Kids & Necomers & Gardeners & Art & Growth & Flowers & Grasses & Sedges & Breath & Sweat & 

Test Plot MN
on the Bee Line

What is a Test Plot?
A Test Plot is a scientific and heartfelt community effort to cultivate a new land ethic rooted in care and ecological stewardship. Test Plots are experimental native plant gardens on public lands — in parks, roadsides, and other "lost" spaces that are typically mowed but not meaningfully maintained. These gardens transform overlooked areas into healthy, biodiverse landscapes. Through monthly workdays, volunteers gain hands-on experience in land care, planting design, and community engagement. Test Plots function as living labs and long-term stewardship sites within the urban landscape. The Test Plot movement was started by our friends at Terremoto and Saturate in Los Angeles. Test Plot is now a nonprofit organization that is growing a network of plots - both physical and social - across the state of California and beyond. Here’s more.

What is Test Plot MN?
Test Plot MN began in spring 2023 as a 1,500-square-foot garden created by architecture students from the University of Minnesota. It's growing every year and will soon reach about 7,000 sq ft. The garden is located at Lexington Parkway and Pierce Butler Route in the Hamline Midway/Frogtown neighborhoods of St. Paul. Test Plot MN operates at the intersection of ecological stewardship, artistic practice, and public learning — functioning simultaneously as a working garden, community gathering space, and art education laboratory. It explores how gardens can serve as platforms for creativity, collaboration, and inquiry: spaces where learning emerges through participation, observation, and relationship with plant communities. A creative research site open to all!

What is the Bee Line?
The Bee Line is a two-mile span of Pierce Butler Route in St. Paul, connecting Hamline Midway and Frogtown. Along this corridor, public lands are being transformed from mowed, neglected turf into thriving pollinator habitat. Most of our plants are propagated by neighbors through winter seed-sowing workshops. The gardens are stewarded by a small collective of organizations managed by friends and neighbors  including Human Nature, the MN Seed Project, and Hamline Midway Coalition. We're deeply grateful for support from the City of St. Paul, Ramsey County, and for financial support from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), and the Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD).

Get Involved!

These plants and trees are the lungs of our communities — and the work of tending them brings us together. In a changing world, the simple act of joining hands to care for land can create meaningful, lasting change.

Drop us a email to sign up for our list and receive invites to monthly workdays, art happenings, and updates about urban ecosystems. Bring your family. Bring your friends. All are always welcome.

Lexington Pkwy and  Pierce Butler Rt is here, park  on the west side of Lexington on Hubbard and walk around to the north!