This month’s Neighbor of the Month is Bethany Pratt, Agent for Horticulture Education with UK’s Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Service. Read on to learn about how Bethany uses urban farming and gardening to help grow the neighborhoods and city we want to live in.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Bethany Pratt and I work for the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service here in Jefferson County. For the past six years, I have been working to support gardening projects all over the county. Through this job I have the opportunity to interact with folks all over Louisville on ideas and initiatives big and small. Mostly, I provide direct support to nine community gardens and one urban farm, along with helping to facilitate the Louisville Urban Agriculture Coalition, a group of citizens and professionals who are passionate about growing food in Louisville. My passion is growing food and when I am not helping other people do that, I spend a lot of time in my own edible yard where I grow lots of blackberries, strawberries and figs.
What have you been working on in your neighborhood?
For the past two years, I have been spending a lot of my time building community through the Urban Agriculture Coalition. We have collectively been active in advocating for changes to the Land Development Code to make agriculture allowable in more areas of Louisville as well as working with the Land Bank Authority to help increase West End residents’ access to vacant lots for farms and gardens. Through this, we have built a stronger network of growers and activists who are ready to think creatively and act to grow the city they want to live in.
How did you get involved in this work?
I have a passion for local food and farming, and when I took this job in Louisville, the community needs for green space to grow food is what lead me down the road of community agriculture. As I learned more about Louisville, I got to meet more like-minded folks who are also passionate about this work and we have built a network of folks across the city ready to grow and make change in our neighborhoods. It’s such a pleasure to be one of the folks who helps build strong connected communities by helping folks meet very localized or more system-wide changes to the place they live.
What do you love about your neighborhood?
What I love about Louisville is the diversity of folks that are united by gardening. We have avid gardeners in all corners of the county growing an amazing variety of food and flowers. It’s such a joy to learn from other gardeners about their own growing traditions and plants that are integral to their families’ lives. We have so many wonderful agricultural traditions here in Louisville and I hope that everyone has the opportunity to learn and explore them.
What are your hopes for your neighborhood in the future?
My hopes for the future are to help more neighborhoods fulfill their dreams of community green spaces (like gardens or parks or natural areas) as well as to work with Metro government to build a system in which neighbors and neighborhoods can utilize the vacant properties in their areas for food production or other green community spaces.
Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you or your neighborhood?
If you want to get involved with urban agriculture, please check out the Urban Agriculture Coalition Website at www.foodinneighborhoods.org/grow or follow @louisvillecommunitygardennetwork on Instagram or Facebook!