Patty Lacrete | Bed Head Plant Nursery
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Patty Lacrete
Bed Head Plant Nursery
East Point, Fulton County
For Patty Lacrete, owner of Bed Head Plant Nursery in East Point, it’s as much about people as plants. When folks ask how she started a plant nursery all by herself, she says, “I didn’t… I fundraised with my friends in community, and we physically built the farm together.” Bed Head offers workdays once a month for people to visit the farm, volunteer and learn. “It’s so interesting how what comes out of those interactions is new friends and new community,” said Patty.
Food Well became part of Patty’s community in 2022 when she purchased her first greenhouse and received help to build it through our Labor Support Program. Since then, she has received funding through our annual Farm Support Grants for a greenhouse extension, a nursery wholesale expansion, and a new trailer which enables her to bring twice as many plants to market. She’s also expanded her online resources so she can mail nationwide. Over the last year, she has doubled production and already exceeded 2024 sales with six months to go in 2025. “I knew this was my goal, this was my plan,” said Patty. “But I didn't realize how quickly it was all going to come to fruition!”
Patty engages with Food Well in several additional ways, teaching workshops at the Fruit Tree Sale, and selling plants at Soil Festival and Plant.Eat.Repeat. gardening workshops. “Events like Soil Fest and Plant.Eat.Repeat. are really attractive to gardening curious folks,” said Patty. “It’s interesting to me that a majority of my customers are first time gardeners, and so they have one million questions, and they’re always excited to learn new things. It’s nice to be at Food Well events, because then those folks are able to take workshops or meet other farmers - just the connecting factor, I really love that about Food Well.”
Reflecting on her purpose for starting Bed Head, Patty said, “It’s because I wanted to save the planet, and then I realized I couldn’t do it by myself. I put two and two together - if I grow the plants for the people, they can help me! So far, so good. I don’t know if we’ve saved the planet yet, but I’m hopeful for the future. I hope to inspire our future heroes. Times like these are tough, but we’re going to see heroes. We’re going to see new people come to the forefront and help us.”
Learn more about Bed Head Plant Nursery on social media @bedheadplants and shop online. You can also purchase Patty’s plants biweekly at the Oakhurst Farmers Market on Saturdays and monthly at Grant Park Farmers Markets on Sundays.
Story of Patty Lacrete & Bed Head Plant Nursery from 2023.
In 2020, Patty Lacrete was looking for change. She was uninspired working her tech job, spending 40 plus hours at home on a computer and feeling burnt out. On a whim, she took a permaculture design certification course that changed her entire perspective. Organic gardening had always been a creative escape for her, but now she saw the chance to pursue it as a career.
She left her tech job and enrolled in UGA to study Agriculture Science. Patty fell in love with the work and developed an ambitious goal to plant 1 million native plants. Realizing she couldn’t achieve this goal alone, she took an unpaid apprenticeship at the Wylde Center to learn more about running a nursery. “I learned how to plant everything from veggies to perennials to herbs and really fell in love with herbs,” said Patty. “I realized the human connections herbalists had, and how they took hold of their own health and helped people, using nature and plants.” That’s when the idea for Bed Head Plant Nursery, the first black, female-owned medicinal herb farm in Southwest Atlanta, was born!
With support from new and old friends, as well as the community, Patty raised $10,000 to purchase a greenhouse. That’s when she discovered Food Well Alliance. She got help building her greenhouse from Charles Greenlea and the Eco-PARADIGM crew through Food Well’s Labor Support program in November 2022. This year, Patty officially opened her nursery and started selling plants in the spring and fall at pop up plant sales around the city. “It was challenging knowing where to start, like learning how government entities like the USDA can assist me with growing, finding Food Well, and knowing what grants are available to me. If I had not made those connections, I don’t think I would be as far as I am right now.”
One of Patty’s favorite parts about running the nursery is connecting with people through volunteer days. The volunteer days provided an opportunity for folks to get outside, exchange knowledge, and build friendships. She regularly collaborates with the Atlanta chapter of herbalists from Sacred Vibes Apothecary who helped get her farm site to the level that it is today.
Now her focus is preparing infrastructure for 2024. Thanks to the Food Well Farm Support Grant and the Labor Support program, Patty was able to purchase and install a second greenhouse. “With a more predictable growing space, I can at least know or predict how much I’m going to be able to sell and what my profits will be for the coming season.” The new addition will also help double her production, extend her growing season and provide more space for educational opportunities.
“I am so grateful that my dream was actually manifested into reality because I see the effect in real time that it has on folks and also the community that it builds,” said Patty. “Like giving folks access to growing for themselves and learning how to grow is liberating. So I think it’s incredibly valuable that donors are able to see the connection and the local and personal growth they’re making.”
