Preserving Farmland, Growing Opportunity: Woodland Gardens 

For more than 25 years, Woodland Gardens has been a cornerstone of Georgia’s local food system, providing certified organic vegetables, fruit and flowers to families, restaurants and farmers markets across the Athens and Atlanta regions. Today, thanks in part to support from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s investment through the GoATL Community Capacity Fund in The Conservation Fund’s Farms Fund, the farm took a major step toward a more secure future: permanent ownership of the land it has stewarded for decades. 

Located on 48 acres near Athens, Woodland Gardens is led by veteran organic farmer Celia Barss, who has more than 22 years of farm management experience and is widely recognized as one of the region’s leading organic producers. The farm supports a full-time staff, operates more than 20 high tunnels and maintains relationships with dozens of restaurant and market partners throughout the region. 

When the longtime property owners decided to sell, Barss was ready to take over ownership of the farm business but faced a challenge familiar to many farmers: the high cost of farmland near growing urban areas. Through its innovative Buy-Support-Protect-Sell model, The Conservation Fund purchased the property and leased it to Barss, creating a patient pathway to ownership while ensuring the land remained in agricultural production. 

The Capacity Fund’s investment in the Farms Fund helps make transactions like this possible. By providing flexible capital, the fund can acquire threatened farmland, protect it through conservation easements and ultimately transfer ownership to farmers at an affordable price. At Woodland Gardens, that model is helping preserve one of the last fruit and vegetable farms in Athens-Clarke County while securing the future of a thriving local business. 

“Woodland Gardens represents exactly what the Farms Fund was created to achieve,” said Krisztian Varsa, Director of Farms Fund at The Conservation Fund. “With support from partners like the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, we are helping experienced farmers gain ownership of the land they steward, while ensuring that productive farmland remains protected and available for future generations.” 

As one of the first farmers in the Farms Fund portfolio to purchase their property, Barss and Woodland Gardens demonstrate how strategic investment can strengthen local food systems, preserve agricultural land and create lasting community impact across Georgia.