Atlanta farmer 'grows' her audience with Magnolia Network series

ATLANTA - On the hit Magnolia Network show "Homegrown," Atlanta-based farmer Jamila Norman quite literally sows the seeds of knowledge, helping families turn their backyards into thriving mini-farms.

It’s nothing new for the University of Georgia graduate, who has been growing her own food for more than a decade.

"Farming came into my life about 14 years ago," says Norman, a former engineer with the state of Georgia. "When I moved to southwest Atlanta, just seeing the options of the food, I was like, ‘Let me start growing some food.’ And it was really just to grow food for my family and a few other families in the community. And it just mushroomed from there."

In fact, it mushroomed into Patchwork City Farms, Norman’s lush and thriving acre-and-a-half property in Atlanta’s Oakland City neighborhood. 

"Oakland City is an official food desert," she says. "I just really wanted to have fresh food available in the community that really needed it."

Patchwork City Farms is also something of an outdoor classroom, where Norman teaches others how to grow their own food. It’s the same thing she does on "Homegrown," now in its third season.

"Never in a million years did I think, ‘Oh, I want to have a show on TV,’ or that I would be on the Magnolia Network," says the host. "I was definitely at a point in my farming where I had been doing it long enough where…people were reaching out, ‘How do I do this?' ‘How do I do that?’ 'I see you doing what you’re doing, can I learn?’ And I thought, ‘Well, this is an opportunity to share with a larger audience that I couldn’t reach on my own.’"

Click here for more information on "Homegrown" — new episodes air Saturdays and the series also streams on Discovery+ and HBO Max.