Photo of Tabia Lisenbee-Parker at Metro Atlanta Urban Farm in College Park (by Caleb Jones)
Let’s grow together
We’ve got resources to help you start growing your own food.
Metro Atlanta Native Plant Guide
Native plants play a pivotal role in sustaining ecosystems by providing essential food sources and shelter for pollinators, birds, and other animals. By embracing native species, we can help safeguard endangered plants that are vulnerable to habitat destruction resulting from urban development and competition with non-native plants. This comprehensive guide includes recommendations for native plant alternatives to invasive species, benefits of planting native species, and regional information to help you find the perfect native plants for your area.
Join us in championing the use of native plants and ensuring the flourishing of the Atlanta ecosystem!
Join a Community Garden
Looking to join a Community Garden? Here are some things to think about and resources to help you find one near you.
Seeds & Seedlings
Does your farm or a farm near you sell seedings? Please email info@foodwellalliance.org and we will update this page!
Where to buy seedlings
Many local farmers have seedlings available for purchase on their farm. Seedlings are usually available in the spring and mid-summer. Here are some local farms who sell seedlings. Visit their website to find out if they have any seedlings for sale:
Aluma Farm (West End)
Love is Love Farm (Mansfield)
Martin’s Garden (Roswell)
Soul Spirit Farms (East Point)
Urban Sprout Farms (Lakewood)
Wylde Center (Decatur)
Seed Saving 101
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange offers about 800 varieties of vegetable, flower, herb, grain and cover crop seeds, emphasizing varieties that perform well in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. They have several guides for how to save seed:
Gardening safely in the city
Gardening is fun, healthy, and can be extremely safe, even in cities. Soil in urban areas is like soil in the countryside in that it is full of nutrients and is the foundation of any garden. However, urban soils often contain high amounts of lead and other heavy metals.
The IUPUI Center for Urban Health put together an all-encompassing guide to growing in urban environments. Read this guide before you start growing to make sure you’re staying safe.
Georgia Department of Public Health gives advice for gardening and farming in urban areas to protect yourselves and your families.
University of Georgia Extension Services in conjunction with their lab, put together a peer reviewed publication to help community and school gardeners assess soils in urban environments.
Compost
Photo of Filomena DeAndrade at Good Shepherd Church in Atlanta (by Caleb Jones)
Healthy Soil, Healthy Food
Compost is a critical part of local food. Whether you are using it for your own garden, supporting nearby gardens and farms, or simply reducing food waste, composting is an extremely environmentally friendly method of creating nutrient dense soil that plants use to grow healthy produce. Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Using Compost.
Here are some resources to help you compost:
CompostNow - collects food scraps from residents and businesses to help them reduce waste and support local gardens
Geobin is an example of a commercial compost bin you can purchase. Here is a fact sheet on how to set it up, and an instructional video on how to make composting easy
The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service has a free downloadable fact sheet that covers all of the basics of composting with worms
