Knox County Community Gardens and Growers Alliance

10/19/2026

10/15/2026

Happy 3 Year Anniversary to EAST KNOXVILLE’S 100 RAISED BED COMMUNITY GARDEN managed by the Knox County Community Gardens and Growers Alliance started with a simple idea.

In 2018, Chris Battle planted a small garden on church land and gave the harvest away. He found that neighbors who wouldn't walk into a church would show up at a garden. That idea grew into Battlefield Farm & Gardens, a network of urban gardens fighting food insecurity across East Knoxville.

One of those partners was his friend Pastor Richard S. Brown Jr. of Payne Avenue Missionary Baptist Church, who offered church land for a garden. It opened October 15, 2023 with 36 raised beds, each with its own water spigot, plus a compost system and shed. Pastor Brown later approved 64 more beds, bringing the total to 100.

Today, 64 beds are tended by church members, neighbors and our refugee community who are growing their own food. The original 36 are dedicated to growing as much fresh produce as possible for the wider community.

Knox County has about 17 food deserts, neighborhoods where many residents live in poverty and fresh food is a mile or more away. Gardens like this one put that food within walking distance.

Pastor Brown passed in January 2024, and the garden now carries his name: the Pastor Richard S. Brown Jr. Community Garden.

📍 2723 Louise Ave. Come visit! 🌱

10/15/2026

TODAY’S THE DAY! Time for the Second Annual Overall Ball!

Tonight, Battlefield Farm & Gardens brings the community together for an evening that celebrates the heart of our work: feeding community and growing change. The Overall Ball is where farm roots meet a night out. It’s a chance to gather, laugh, and stand behind the people working every day to bring fresh food and real opportunity to Knoxville.

Tonight’s proceeds support The ONE FIVE Grocery Store coming to 2265 McCalla Ave in East Knoxville.

Dust off your boots and overalls and come out to celebrate with us. Every person in that room is helping build something that will better East Knoxville for years to come.

Official hashtag for tonight’s event

📅 Thursday, October 15, 2026
⏰ 6:15–9:00 PM
📍 Knoxville Botanical Gardens

Presented by CIC Services

We’ll see you tonight! 🌾

10/05/2026

🎉 The countdown is on! We're just 10 days away from celebrating the Second Annual Overall Ball with our friends and partners! 🤠

A special thank you to our 2026 Overall Ball Presenting Sponsor, CIC Services, for your generous support!

Your partnership and investment in our community help Battlefield Farm keep fighting food insecurity and creating community in Knoxville. We truly appreciate you helping make the Second Annual Overall Ball possible!

📅 Thursday, October 15, 2026
⌚️ 6:15–9:00 PM
📍 Knoxville Botanical Gardens

Visit https://www.captivatingthinking.com/

10/05/2026

On Friday, September 18th, the Alliance hosted our first-ever dinner at the Pastor Richard S. Brown Jr. Community Garden at Payne Avenue Missionary Baptist Church in East Knoxville! 🌱🍽️

Garden bed adoptees and their families joined Alliance staff and board members for an evening of good food, good company, and community. An incredible meal was catered by Silver Queen Kitchen

As the Brown Community Garden approaches its three-year anniversary since the ribbon cutting on October 15, 2023, we’re celebrating just how much this garden has grown. Not only has the garden expanded, but so has the amount of food being produced. Last year alone, we distributed 3,600 pounds of fresh produce grown at Brown Garden to community members experiencing food insecurity! 🥕🍅🌿

We are especially proud of the increased engagement from the surrounding community, and this dinner was one small way for us to say thank you to the gardeners and families who have helped make the Brown Community Garden such a success. We hope to have more opportunities to gather together in the coming year.

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10/02/2026

The Alliance was proud to be a community sponsor for tonight's Real Good Gathering! Our staff had a real good time celebrating Real Good Kitchen and the incredible work they do for our city. 💚

09/29/2026

🪴Alliance members gathered last week at the Bearden United Methodist Church Community Garden for our September membership meeting, where Leigh Cheek led the group through a space that was a church playground less than two years ago.

In April, Leigh met with Knox County Extension agent Rylan Thompson, who oversaw the Knox County Master Gardener program. He suggested she join the Alliance so her master gardener hours could count toward an Alliance project. Leigh became a master gardener in May 2025 and started a blog to keep church members and friends updated.

The first big job was clearing out the old “magic mulch,” shredded tires that took from May until August to give away through Facebook Marketplace.

In mid-August 2025, Leigh brought her garden plan to the Alliance for review, and the lasagna-style conversion began with cardboard donated by church members, two chip drops for pathways, grass clippings, mulched leaves, 2.5 yards of manure from Shangri La Horse Farm and 10 yards of compost from L&M Landscape Material, with the Alliance covering the cost of the compost and manure.

Cover crops, kale, collards, turnips and mustard greens went in first, with perennial flowers at the end of each row. The garden’s first harvest came that November, when two pounds of greens went into the church’s Thanksgiving giveaway boxes, followed by a pound for Christmas boxes in December.

This year, the numbers took off. After planting carrots and onions in February and potatoes in March, the garden harvested 23 pounds in April, 100 in May, 100 in June, 128 in July and 305 in August, and more than 135 pounds so far in September.

That’s close to 800 pounds of potatoes, greens, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, tromboncino squash, okra and herbs. In August, the garden hung gleaning baskets on its fence so neighbors can take fresh produce for free. Members also saw two new deep raised beds, built to address excess zinc left in the soil where the tire mulch once sat.

They’re netted and ready for winter vegetables, and the harvest isn’t slowing down. We are proud of the work that BUMC Garden is doing! ☀️

09/28/2026

🌸 Big news! 🌸 Our Vine Middle Magnet Outdoor Learning Landscape is a 2026 Orchid Award nominee from Keep Knoxville Beautiful !

This one’s thanks to our Youth Garden Education Program, led by directors Erica Lisowe and Nick Thompson, our Youth Garden Managers, the students, teachers, and volunteers who made this outdoor classroom grow. 💚

Winners will be announced Nov. 4. at the Knoxville Museum of Art!We are grateful and honored!

Since 1979, the Orchids Beautification Awards have honored the buildings, public art, and outdoor spaces that make Knoxville and Knox County more beautiful, along with the volunteers, partners, and green organizations behind them.

09/27/2026

🍂Fall is in the air and every gardener knows the feeling. You plant with hope, water faithfully, and still the tomatoes split, the squash wilts, or the seeds never come up at all.

15 year old Harmony, one of our Miller Heritage Garden bed adoptees from West High School, learned that firsthand this season. When her first planting didn’t take, she didn’t walk away. She cleared the bed, reworked the soil, and is starting again.

That’s the lesson the garden keeps teaching. Starting over isn’t failure, it’s part of the work. Every do-over teaches you something the first try couldn’t.

Gardens grow people as much as they grow food, and patience is usually the first harvest. 🌱