Lily Baran, Leading a New Garden Project to Heal and Grow

Our Town Reno

With temperatures rising and skies clearing, activist Lily Baran started her day tending to a batch of strawberry seedlings she received from a farm in Dayton, Nevada. Her son Oliver and her dog Champagne are close behind, dodging wasps here and there. Once frost is a threat of the past, the seedlings can be put into the ground to bloom and grow into red delicious berries. For now, they are one of the first batches of seedlings grown by the Hampton House Community Garden Project. Baran, a Reno citizen of almost eight years, partnered with Black Wall Street Reno about two months ago to start the project. “I think I've always loved gardening, but, in my work and organizing and activism have really wanted to find a way after such a traumatic year for everyone, but especially for Black and Indigenous people, to try to find a way that we can have a space where we're restoring and healing and taking care of each other and ourselves and our communities.” Our reporter for this episode is Rachel Jackson.