WKYT Investigates: Seedleaf expands into Fayette County
Organizers say they’re bridging a gap between horse country and city.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - A nonprofit in Lexington teaching people how to create urban gardens is expanding.
Seedleaf is now planting outside the streets of downtown Lexington on a 30-acre farm. Organizers say they’re bridging a gap between horse country and city.
“It had been conventionally farmed previously. Mostly, I think corn and perhaps some soybean,” says Christine Smith, talking about Seedleaf’s newest leased property.
Smith is Seedleaf’s executive director and, soon, the one giving out one-acre plots to future farmers.
“This is a program where we give new and beginning farmers a chance to not only learn how to farm but also the land and material that one would need to get started, and the idea is that they’ll be able to scale up from here,” said Smith.
Seedleaf already works to bridge gaps in what they call urban food deserts.
The USDA says those are areas of a city where a supermarket is more than a mile away. Their maps show Lexington’s food deserts are mostly in the downtown area and the north end. 70% of Seedleaf’s current garden sites are in those areas.
“The idea is really to tie, and the folks who live downtown, who have no reason or no ability to come out here, it’s all private farms, right, to be able to see the space as a community space that they can come and visit and engage in,” said Smith. “There are so many Lexingtonians who haven’t seen a horse, who haven’t ridden a horse, and have no idea about these horse farms. They know about it from TV. They know about it from our political discussions on the urban service boundary, but they have no idea why people are fighting so hard to protect this landscape.”
Seedleaf is always looking for volunteers. You can get involved by visiting their website, seedleaf.org.
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