They then have the opportunity to sell the fruits (and veggies) of their labor at the Lexington Farmers Market and two alternating weekly markets in Woodhill and at Castlewood Park. Seedleaf goes into recruitment mode every August, working with community partners to attract market growers using flyers, word of mouth and other outreach efforts.Īfter each new class completes horticulture and business training, the growers receive plots to work at no cost.
Seedleaf Executive Director Christine Smith described how the garden is an incubator for new growers like Megan and Monet.
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When we built the pack and wash station, we learned how to lay gravel and pour concrete. “I got into Seedleaf with a focus on my personal gardening, then this sense of community kicked in and suddenly we’re all harvesting for one another. For her, it was the next step beyond growing food in her own backyard. Megan, the farm assistant, says she got hooked while living next to a Seedleaf u-pick garden. It’s a story we heard several times over. Both Andrew and Lindsey said that animal bones and teeth are still unearthed from time to time.
No water or electric or structures.” Amazingly, the land had once been used for agriculture so had never seen urban development of any kind. Andrew told us how in the beginning, the farm was “an empty field. We met Andrew at the end of March when planting was just getting underway. “There’s places (all over Lexington) getting mowed that have the potential of a beautiful garden underneath.”
“There’s this massive untapped body of knowledge that remains untapped because there’s no access to land.” He went on to describe how public policy could be changed for the better. Referring to the diversity of the folks who grow food alongside them, Andrew explained how they all learn from one another. Today the Seedleaf Community Farm is home to more than 14 growers and includes the Seedleaf Market Gardening Program, a community garden, and plots tended by families and independent growers like Andrew and Reva’s North Farm. As Andrew says “they said we could use it for five years and we’re still here.”Īlong the way, they found a partner in Seedleaf which had established several gardens around Lexington and was looking for a site with more space. When new owners took over the nearby Biscayne apartment complex, Andrew happened to know them and asked about their plans for the empty land behind it. They’d moved to the area in 2014 to fulfill their dream of living in a neighborhood and being engaged neighbors. It’s been planted with sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos.Īll this bounteous goodness started to take hold around 2017 when Andrew and Reva Russell English outgrew their backyard garden. On a recent summer afternoon, we found the following fruits and vegetables growing: beans, beets, carrots, chard, corn, cucumbers, currants, lettuces, onions, peppers, squash, strawberries, and tomatoes.Ī formerly overgrown mound at one corner is being transformed into what farm manager Lindsey Funke jokingly calls Flower Power Mountain. There are small plots cultivated by individuals and larger ones for families or groups of families. The farmers who grow there have roots in central America, Africa, south Asia, down the road and the next state over.
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