An Urban Eden
story by Donna Hecker & photography by Talitha Schroeder
There’s a little bit of Eden on the north end of Lexington, Ky. Hidden behind a barricade of bushes to the east and an apartment complex to the west is a two-acre urban farm, tended by a miniature United Nations Assembly of farmers. Seedleaf Community Farm is a real-life experiment in land use, community development, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and the possibility of making dreams come true.
The farmers who grow there have roots in central America, Africa, south Asia, down the road and the next state over. There are small plots cultivated by individuals and larger ones for families or groups of families. 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.
A formerly overgrown mound at one corner is being transformed into what farm manager Lindsey Funke jokingly calls Flower Power Mountain. It’s been planted with sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos.
All this bounteous goodness started to take hold around 2017 when Andrew and Reva Russell English outgrew their backyard garden. They’d moved to the area in 2014 to fulfill their dream of living in a neighborhood and being engaged neighbors. 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. As Andrew says “they said we could use it for five years and we’re still here.”
Along the way, they found a partner in Seedleaf which had established several gardens around Lexington and was looking for a site with more space. 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.
Referring to the diversity of the folks who grow food alongside them, Andrew explained how they all learn from one another. “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. “There’s places (all over Lexington) getting mowed that have the potential of a beautiful garden underneath.”
We met Andrew at the end of March when planting was just getting underway. Andrew told us how in the beginning, the farm was “an empty field. No amenities. No water or electric or structures.” Amazingly, the land had once been used for agriculture so had never seen urban development of any kind. Both Andrew and Lindsey said that animal bones and teeth are still unearthed from time to time.
Now there’s a tool shed and produce cooler; electricity and water; and most recently, a pack and wash station. Which is where we found Monet – a one-woman force field who radiates positive energy – trimming carrots for her Grow with Mo customers.
Monet’s son Princeton was just a few days old the first time she ventured across Lexington to visit the Seedleaf Community Garden. “Now he’s turned two and I’m the outreach coordinator for Seedleaf,'' she told us. “It’s the most amazing platform I could have ever asked for. I’m trying out a limited CSA and it’s a beautiful feeling that folks are choosing me over Kroger. Seedleaf is enhancing our individual efforts. Ultimately, the mission of Seedleaf is not to be needed. We’ll all be self-sufficient and can sustain ourselves. We’re all entrepreneurs!”
It’s a story we heard several times over. Megan, the farm assistant, says she got hooked while living next to a Seedleaf u-pick garden. For her, it was the next step beyond growing food in her own backyard. “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. When we built the pack and wash station, we learned how to lay gravel and pour concrete. Now it’s a lived experience. I found a community.”
Seedleaf Executive Director Christine Smith described how the garden is an incubator for new growers like Megan and Monet. Seedleaf goes into recruitment mode every August, working with community partners to attract market growers using flyers, word of mouth and other outreach efforts.
After each new class completes horticulture and business training, the growers receive plots to work at no cost. 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. There are seven market growers currently in the program, four of whom are new to it.
Lindsey says Seedleaf provides needed resources – “all the little moving pieces like containers, berry baskets, bags, rubber bands, all sorts of the supplies that have to be bought in bulk and would be cost-prohibitive to individual buyers.” Before each market, growers tell Seedleaf what they’re going to sell and for how much, and Seedleaf programs the info into its Square account so all proceeds can be returned to the growers.
While families farm and market growers tend their plots, Seedleaf also cultivates a community u-pick garden and grows produce for partners like FoodChain. In 2021 Seedleaf donated over 400 pounds of greens to FoodChain; Lindsey told us they’ve already exceeded that as of June 2022 and are still growing strong. The produce sent to FoodChain finds its way into delicious hot meals and meal kits for the Lexington community.
As Lindsey says, at the Seedleaf Community Farm, “We stitch community together in a lot of different ways….we exchange ideas and dream up ways to create new channels for farmers in Kentucky. Each farmer lifts some of the burden so we can all move forward together.”
There’s a quote from Michael Pollan on the Seedleaf website – The single greatest lesson the garden teaches us is … that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.
To which we’d add, far from diminishing the world, Seedleaf Community Farm has grown its little corner of it into something far greater than the sum of its parts.
© 2022, Holly Hill Inn/Ilex Summit, LLC and its affiliates, All Rights Reserved
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