Navigated to About Jermaine Jefferson | Jermaine Jefferson

About

JermaineJefferson

Grower. Author. Builder. Husband. Father of four. Pirate head.

I grow food, train, write books and build businesses out of a backyard in West Central Florida. This page is the long version, the one that does not fit in a video description.

Jermaine Jefferson, author and founder of GrowFitFL, standing in a tan blazer

The short version

Jermaine Jefferson, in plain terms.

Who he is: Author, YouTube creator and entrepreneur
Based: West Central Florida, USDA zone 10a
Known for: GrowFitFL and the GrowFitFL Club
Books: Grow Food NOT Lawns, The Florida Perennial Garden, Discipline. Fourth book January 2027
Background: Certified personal trainer for twelve years
Family: Married to the creator of Rooted in Js. Four children

The story

How I got here.

From turning a Florida backyard into a food forest to becoming a number one Amazon best selling author, my story is one of resilience, vision and purpose. As the creator of GrowFitFL, I have spent my life showing families how to grow real food, reclaim their health, and build strength that lasts. The work blends decades of fitness experience with a deep commitment to food security, family and faith.

The road has not been easy. Losing my father, and facing health challenges in my own family, fueled my determination to create more than a garden. I built a lifestyle that helps other people thrive when times get hard.

The message was never really about gardening. It is about legacy, discipline, and the belief that God always provides.

Today my wife, the creator of Rooted in Js, and I are raising four children, cultivating a thriving food forest, and building a community that is taking control of its health and its future. Strength does not just come from lifting weights or running races. It comes from planting seeds of resilience in body, mind and soil.

It's better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.

Drag to move through it

The road here.

Growing up

A grandfather with Jimmy Buffett on

Buffett was always playing in my grandfather's house. I did not know it at the time, but that sound got in me. Warm weather, saltwater, no hurry. It is a big part of what eventually pulled me south.

Twelve years

Certified personal trainer

Twelve years putting people through it. I learned more about human nature in that job than in any book. Most people do not need more information. They need to do the boring thing on the day they do not feel like it.

The hard part

Losing my father

Losing my father, and facing health challenges in my own family, changed what I was building for. It stopped being about looking good and started being about how many good years a person actually gets.

Six years ago

North to Central Florida

We moved up from South Florida. Different soil, different freezes, same sun. Everything I knew about growing food down here got tested all over again on this property.

The yard

One backyard, turned into a food forest

Seventy plus fruit trees now. Not a display garden. A pantry that happens to be outside. It feeds my family and it is the reason I am on camera at all.

Three books

Grow Food NOT Lawns, and the two after it

I wrote the book I could not find. Then I wrote two more. A number one Amazon best seller came out of it, which still does not feel real when I say it out loud.

Now

GrowFitFL, the Club, and whatever is next

A long video every Sunday, a membership full of Southern growers, and a fourth book on the way. My wife runs her own channel from the same yard. We are building this thing together.

Grab it and pull

Off camera

What people may not know about me.

The parts that do not make it into a gardening video.

Music

Buffett and Marley

That is my grandfather in the photo. He loved Jimmy Buffett, so I grew up hearing it in his house. That sound is tied up with the ocean and warm weather calling that led me to Florida in the first place. Bob Marley is the other half of it. Two men who understood that laid back and serious are not opposites.

The map

I enjoy traveling

My wife and I get out and see the world every chance we get. The plan is to see as much of it as the good Lord gives us time for. We are not in a rush, and we are not slowing down either.

Jermaine Jefferson in Barcelona — Barcelona

Family

Four incredible kids

Here is a fun fact for you and a tiring one for us. Our oldest is college bound and our youngest is still in diapers, with two more in between. So we will be traveling with children for a long time yet. We would not trade it.

Reading and writing

A fourth book, January 2027

I read constantly and I write more than people realize. A lot of it happens on planes. The next book comes in January of 2027.

The cold one

Twenty degrees out, and I did not want to get out

That water photo is me in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. It has natural healing properties and it is the warmest I have ever been outdoors. Fun fact about us: we are Floridians, so sixty degrees is cold. It was about twenty degrees that day. I stayed in that lagoon and felt great.

If I had to pick

A beach. Any beach.

One place in the world, for good? Put me on a beach. I am not particular about which one. Sand, water, something cold, my wife nearby, and I am fine.

Race day

We run Spartan races

My wife and I sign up for Spartan races together. Mud, walls, rope, and a whole lot of hill. Neither of us has to do any of it, which is exactly the point. Something happens to a marriage when you watch each other refuse to quit in front of strangers.

Watch us run one

Seven cards, drag through them

Still chasing

Four things I want.

01
One million gardens
Get a million people to put in a backyard garden. Not a windowsill herb. A real one that feeds somebody.
02
A photo with every one of you
Meet and take a picture with every single person I have personally helped. I know how that sounds. I am doing it anyway.
03
Reach the young ones
Inspire the generation coming up behind us. They have been sold a lot of nonsense about what a good life costs.
04
Buy the boat
One day, buy a boat and sail it with my wife. That one is not a metaphor.

Right now, this week

Currently.

What I am actually doing at the moment. This is the part of the page that changes.

Growing

Fifty plus banana plants, every one back off the rhizomes after the January freeze took the lot. First flower is open.

Building

The GrowFitFL Club. Everything I know about growing food down here, in one place, and it gets bigger every week.

Training

Back under the bar four days a week, logging every set. Twelve years training people and I still do the boring work.

Writing

Book four. January 2027. A lot of it gets written at 35,000 feet.

On repeat

Buffett and Marley, mostly.

Filming

Two long videos a week out of the food forest. Friday and Sunday, freeze or heat.

Questions people actually ask

The common ones.

Who is Jermaine Jefferson?

Jermaine Jefferson is an author, YouTube creator and entrepreneur in West Central Florida. He turned a backyard into a food forest, spent twelve years as a certified personal trainer, and founded GrowFitFL and the GrowFitFL Club. He has written three books, with a fourth due in January 2027.

What books has Jermaine Jefferson written?

Grow Food NOT Lawns, The Florida Perennial Garden, and Discipline: What Nobody Wants to Hear. A fourth book is scheduled for January 2027.

What is GrowFitFL?

GrowFitFL is the brand and YouTube channel Jermaine Jefferson founded, covering food forests, Florida and Southern gardening, and self reliance. It includes the GrowFitFL Club membership, a podcast, and a line of books.

Where is Jermaine Jefferson based?

West Central Florida, in USDA hardiness zone 10a. The UF IFAS growing region is Central Florida.

Is Jermaine Jefferson married?

Yes. His wife runs the Rooted in Js channel and wrote The Florida Grow List. They grow the same food forest and have four children.

How do you contact Jermaine Jefferson?

Brands, media and partnership requests go through the contact form on jermainejefferson.com. Business email is contact@growfitfl.com.

Two doors

Where to from here.

If you came to grow food

The GrowFitFL Club

Everything I know about growing food down here, in one place. Member videos, the full Masterclass, planting tools, and a room full of Southern growers.

Come grow with me

If you are here for everything else

My Patreon

The training, the discipline talk, the travel, the faith. Patreon is where the rest of my life lives, and there is already a pile of it in there.

Come see what is in there