We are now in the season when farmers markets are full of smiling faces and fresh harvests, and many communities across the country are coming together for a community garden.
In a state blessed with fertile soil and ample rainfall, Jon Heatherly is planting seeds of change through a growing network of community gardens across Tennessee. A Rutherford County Master Gardener since 2022, Heatherly tackled an issue affecting communities statewide: food deserts. His solution began with a simple yet powerful vision, creating free public food gardens in every major Tennessee city.
“Around the world, there are places where fresh food grows freely in and around cities, accessible to anyone,” Heatherly explains. “Meanwhile, in the U.S., housing costs continue to rise, and many communities face limited access to fresh, healthy food.”
This vision led to the establishment of Tennessee Community Gardens, formed with a mission to “connect community gardens and food hubs across Tennessee to build an equitable, sustainable, and healthy food network.” The initiative takes a distinctly grassroots approach.
“TCG operates with a bottom-up approach; most of what we do is informational and focused on resource distribution via word-of-mouth,” Heatherly says.
This decentralized structure allows cities like Nashville, Murfreesboro, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga to maintain semi-autonomous garden coalitions, each addressing the specific needs of their communities.
The network has blossomed into dozens of active gardens across the state. The organization’s mutual aid map, which has received tens of thousands of visits, now includes numerous gardens, blessing boxes and food pantries throughout Tennessee.
Technology plays a crucial role in TCG’s growth. The Murfreesboro Community Garden, where Heatherly is directly involved, has implemented QR codes on crops that link them to educational blogs, allowing for self-guided tours. Their website is a hub for garden management, educational resources, and community outreach.
“We host our website on Wix, which helps us manage blog posts, a garden directory, and email outreach to subscribers,” Heatherly notes. The network also maintains a presence on various social media platforms and uses collaborative tools like Slack for knowledge sharing.
TCG provides tangible support to new community gardens through free seed care packages available upon request. The organization connects gardens with resources such as ChipDrop, which links arborists with individuals seeking free wood chips and facilitates community donations, including cedar planks for raised beds.
Community engagement occurs through local events, workshops on sustainability, and word-of-mouth outreach. “People are eager to participate once they see the tangible benefits of community gardening,” says Heatherly.
Looking ahead, TCG looks to expand its data collection efforts by tracking harvest weights across different gardens to measure their impact more consistently. The organization also draws on academic research from universities like UT and TSU, indigenous perspectives, and traditional growing methods.
Heatherly believes community gardens offer benefits beyond just access to fresh food.
“As people relearn foodways through community gardens, they bring that knowledge into schools, workplaces, and their homes,” he explains. “Gardening also reconnects people to the land and one another, strengthening relationships that have weakened due to capitalist isolation.”
If you’re interested in joining the movement, Heatherly encourages you to visit the TCG mutual aid map at tncommgard.com to find nearby gardens or to submit your own. You can also connect with the network on Facebook, Instagram and Threads under @tncommgard, email Jon at tncommgard@gmail.com or visit the Murfreesboro Community Garden at 806 E. State St., behind Key Memorial United Methodist Church. With each passing season, Tennessee Community Gardens continues its mission to ensure no Tennessean goes hungry one community garden at a time.
