Frogtown Green says goodbye

Patricia Ohmans

Friends, after 16 years, Frogtown Green is closing. It’s time to make room for another generation of neighborhood environmental advocates, and time for me to turn my attention to personal and family matters.
Community work is frustrating and fulfilling, in equal measure, but it is full of life lessons. Here are three things I’ve learned, in a decade and a half of working alongside neighbors to make Frogtown greener, healthier and more beautiful.

Start with a crazy idea
Frogtown Green was founded as an outgrowth of a truly grass-roots campaign to create a brand-new park – a park with an organic community farm, no less! –in the middle of our greenspace-starved neighborhood, on 13 acres of vacant land.
At first, it seemed our idea was doomed to failure. We were ordinary Frogtown residents; none of us were government poohbahs or philanthropic moneybags. Nobody in power seemed interested; the city parks department shrugged; the foundation that owned the 13 acres wanted to sell it for millions of dollars. They made that clear to those of us who asked. But we prevailed, and today, those 13 acres of greenspace are Frogtown Park & Farm – a St Paul city park that we all own.
The idea of a community-benefitting farm nestled within a park spoke to Frogtowners, who were hungry for places to play and thrive. It also seized the attention of people in high places, including folks from The Trust for Public Land, who helped us raise millions to buy the land for Frogtown Park & Farm. We couldn’t have done it without them, but the crazy idea was why we all did it.

Set a ridiculous goal
Our park campaign attracted the attention of a couple of guys in the city’s forestry department, who alerted us to the lack of tree canopy in Frogtown. (In some St Paul neighborhoods, 35% of the land is shaded by mature trees; in Frogtown it was more like 20%.) Our arborist friends showed us how to create an ad hoc hydroponic nursery, where baby trees could be nurtured in a mix of gravel and water, until they were large enough to be transplanted into neighborhood yards.
With no money and not much of a clue, we decided to plant “1,000 Trees in Frogtown.” It took us a decade to reach that ridiculous goal but reach it we did. Eventually we perfected a time-consuming marketing method of flyering every home in Frogtown, making site visits to people who signed up for a free tree, and sending volunteers to work with tree recipients, to ensure the trees’ survival.
We surpassed 1,000 trees in 2024. This past year, we planted another 183, working our way toward that second thousand. Today I can walk down Frogtown streets and see dozens of 5-,6- and even 10-year old trees that have been planted by Frogtown Green volunteers in the years since we set our sights on our ridiculous goal.

Work in the neglected spaces
Pierce Butler Route is an obscure county road on the north end of Frogtwn. A stretch from Snelling Avenue to Dale Street serves as a noisy path to the freeway for commercial trucks and commuters. Starting in 2016 we planted a series of pollinator-friendly gardens at West Minnehaha Recreation Center, eventually snaking our way from Minnehaha Avenue up Grotto Street, all the way to the corner of Pierce Butler.
Over the same period, native plant advocates in Hamline-Midway planted and tended a giant meadow at the interchange of Pierce Butler and Snelling. This prompted a new crazy idea: why not connect these pollinator patches into a string of beauty and color, with native gardens stretching from Snelling all the way to Dale?
Once again, we set to work, trying to persuade people that this heavily trafficked, neglected road could serve as a demonstration of climate-friendly roadside landscaping, saving tax money and mowing crew labor, while reducing pollution and creating habitat for pollinators like insects and birds.
The Bee Line remains a work in progress. So, for that matter, is tree planting in Frogtown, as well as Frogtown Park and Farm. Frogtown remains in need of green. There’s plenty of work for Frogtown Green’s successors; and I hope to be among them (or at least cheering them on.)
What 16 years of greening Frogtown has taught me is that no idea is too crazy, no goal is too ridiculous, and no space is too neglected to benefit from the work of dedicated residents and friends. How can I be anything but grateful?
Patricia Ohmans is the founder and director of Frogtown Green, 2009-2025. Frogtown Green is a resident-led and volunteer-powered environmental initiative in St Paul’s most diverse neighborhood. If you’d like to know more, browse frogtowngreen.com or call 651-757-5970.