Beargrass
Thunder

The Louisville Seedbank project is a pilot program by Beargrass Thunder and Louisville Grows using donated seeds from various non-profits, business groups, and community residents in the city. The goal is to cultivate varieties of native plants and edible food that is resistant to the Urban Heat Island Effect and can grow  in the microclimates of urban Louisville neighborhoods.

 

We host giveaways for neighbors to take home seeds of their choice for free. Those seeds grow into plants, then the seeds from those plants are harvested and collected to store until next year. Each cycle produces plants that will grow better in these microclimates and urban environments, producing more survivable plants and better yields.

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We also produce educational content to teach people of all ages how to plant, grow, harvest, collect, and store plants and seeds.

 

For now, the pilot is focused on the Smoketown, Shelby Park, and Russell neighborhoods with the hope of eventually replicating the project city-wide. We want checking out seeds to be as easy to checking out books from a library. Eventually we can find which seeds and cultivars of plants survive Louisville's wild temperature swings and withstand the Urban Heat Island Effect.