King’s Home Garden

King’s Home Garden is a fully operational farm with an educational horticultural program offering hope and healing through gardening experiences.

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Where Hope Grows

King’s Home Garden provides horticultural experiences for residents of King’s Home along with local nonprofits and community groups. The fruits of our labor provide farm-fresh produce, flowers, honey, and eggs for King’s Home residents and members of our community.

The goal of King’s Home Garden is to help King’s Home residents and other participants develop needed skills and character traits, such as accountability, responsibility, self-confidence, problem-solving skills, work ethic, sowing and reaping, and healthy eating habits.

Growing Hope

While in the garden, participants learn the importance of producing and consuming fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Our gardeners learn how to plant from seed, harvest crops, and prepare healthy meals with produce grown at King’s Home Garden. They also learn about the importance of bees and how to harvest honey. Plus, they learn how to care for chickens and harvest eggs!

Through learning real agricultural skills, King’s Home residents and members of our community can walk away with life lessons that stretch far beyond their time at King’s Home Garden.

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Our gardens

Year-Round Gardens

We’re thrilled to be the recipient of grants from the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries to build a high tunnel to grow specialty crops! We also partner with farmers and organizations such as professors from Tuskegee University, Alabama Extension agents, and Master Gardeners, to bring a variety of knowledge and education to the people we reach. Our gardeners work hard to grow fresh veggies and produce year-round! The farm fresh goods are then used in our homes or sold at local farmer’s markets.

Flower Gardens

One stroll through our flower gardens and you’ll be refreshed with the sweet smells of fresh flowers and the buzzing of our honey bees. These flowers are enjoyed by our residents in their homes and are sold at local farmer’s markets.

Raised Beds

These beds are loved and nurtured by our residents. Each bed represents a residential group home at King’s Home. The residents work in their gardens to grow what they want for their home!

Honey Bees

Our beekeeping program is buzzing with activity! The bees are hard at work gathering nectar and crafting delicious honey that will be available for sale soon.

Farm Fresh Eggs

When you visit King’s Home Garden, you’ll see our many laying hens. It’s not unusual for our youth to ask to hold or pet a chicken or even help gather eggs. Our eggs are either sold to local restaurants/stores, used in homes, or sometimes used in recipes during a session. These animals and farm-fresh eggs allow a perfect learning opportunity for residents at King’s Home.

Meet Our Team

King's Home Garden Director
Hello, My name is Jonathan Mack, the Director at the Garden at King's Home. My main focus is serving and training. Youth at King's home have been abandoned, neglected, or abused. My calling is to show them there is hope- hope in God. God designed us to be creative, therefore we foster learning and creativity at King's Garden. We offer specialized therapy sessions centered around learning new skills: woodworking, tool training, handyman skills, farming and caring for chickens. We also have a fenced-in garden with two greenhouses to teach youth about plants and gardening. We teach that we can glorify God even by what we eat! God's creation is all around us; by getting outdoors to enjoy it we can receive joy and beneficial therapy from past trauma events. We also have chickens on site, active honeybee hives, an herb garden, berry plants, and flowers that create fun and exciting bouquet sessions. We encourage youth and adults in the Word of God. Ephesians 2:10 is often referred to as it hangs above our doorpost: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
We truly enjoy one another during our sessions- laughter is a common occurrence!
We are all called to make an impact, to make disciples, and ultimately share who Jesus is. How cool it is that we get to do all of this on a farm!

King's Home Garden Assistant
A long time resident of Birmingham, "Ms. Kat" graduated from Shades Valley in 1965. At some point in her various and assorted careers, she took an interest in helping people with organizing and landscaping properties. This led to several years working as the Head of Grounds and Head of Custodial at a prestigious local private school. When she retired from the school, she was offered a job at King's Home, working at the Garden & Educational Center. Now she works with Jonathan Mack gardening and assisting with the sessions they've designed for Kings Home Youth. "It's probably some of the most satisfying work I've ever done!", she says.
Kat is also the proud mother of Chef Chris Harrigan, who runs both Sattersfield's and El Zun Zun with his wife Leah, in Cahaba Heights. In the mix are also two grandchildren, Lillie Grace and Jackson.

Visit King’s Home Garden

Bring your group to visit King’s Home Garden for a guided, hands-on learning experience.

Currently, we provide learning opportunities for students to grow in their understanding of how to grow and consume Alabama specialty crops, farm-to-table concepts, raising chickens for eggs, and in the near future, we hope to add a honey bee experience.

Please contact us today to find out more and to schedule a visit to King’s Home Garden. Let us know if there is anything specific you are trying to teach your students during the field trip so we can better partner with you.

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