An isolated off-grid community is the subject of Discovery’s new docuseries The Garden: Commune or Cult, which premieres October 29. The group follows its own societal rules without an official leader, and is instead run by a council.
Founded in 2009, The Garden has faced disturbing allegations (including killing and eating a cat) along with accusations of being a cult after a number of viral social media posts. Newcomers must undergo a 10-day initiation period before being allowed to join. Not everyone makes it.
Now cameras have been allowed inside the commune as it moves from a 22 acre site in Lafayette, Tennessee, to an even more expansive piece of land in La Plata, Missouri, deep in the Ozarks. At the center of the Discovery Channel docuseries are prominent Garden members including founder Patrick, Tree, and Julia.
It also follows Tyler Milligan and other prospects hoping to join the group. The military veteran and self-described doomsday prepper left his Colorado Springs home and wife Heather Carnahan to see what this community is really about.
Here Milligan further explains what viewers will see over the six-part limited series.
How did you get involved with this series?
Tyler Milligan: I was already watching Tree on TikTok. I was watching online as the cult allegations exploded. It just went crazy. They ended up closing their doors to The Garden. I’m a story collector. I’m always looking to travel and go places. So, when they opened the doors back up to The Garden, I was all over it. Then Tree basically said they were filming and asking who was interested. I was like, “Sign me up.”
How was it having cameras following your experience?
It’s definitely a different way of living, I’ll tell you that right now. Waking up and having a mic strapped to you with cameras in your face. I actually enjoyed it. I do well on camera. I’m not shy. I’m naked quite a bit. It was a very unique process of living that type of way. Not only are you experiencing this unique Garden experience where you eating out of a dumpster and teaching people your life skills while learning life skills and meeting these really unique people. At the same time, cameras are on you at the exact same time. I enjoyed the process of it all. I’ve never had anything like that.
You see in the early episodes how close you are to your wife. I think it’s ironic that she is a private investigator. Was there any trepidation from the people of The Garden having you because of this fact?
We actually own a private investigator business together. When they first hear about that type of stuff, they automatically think of law enforcement. They are super anti-society and don’t want anything to do with law enforcement. I had to reiterate to a lot of people that we are criminal defense investigators. We don’t help put people behind bars, but people’s constitutional rights as American citizens need to be protected regardless if they are guilty or not. We mitigate how long people go to jail for and try to serve them the best we can. The Garden hears PI and thinks we are cops. No, it’s quite the opposite.
Right off the bat, you run into some red flags, especially as you witness how they are treating fellow prospect Narayah. Tell me about your first impressions.
I’ll tell you right now, seeing them on social media and meeting them in person are two different worlds. As the season unfolds, you’ll see exactly why I say that. It gets pretty chaotic. Narayah, my first impression was I thought she fit in pretty well. She was a little too abrasive for someone like Tree. She was constantly shooting down ideas people were having. That’s one of the problems when you have a society that’s built on consensus. You’ll see I get shot down quite a bit with my ideas, and it’s really frustrating.
You say at one point you’re not afraid of confrontation or even will kill if necessary.
It’s a very strong sentence, but I remember saying that. I’ve been in the military for 10 years. I struggle with PTSD. I don’t necessarily struggle with it anymore, but I used to be emotionally reactive to what happened to me. I finally realized the quality of life I have is based on how I react to what happens to me. So if I wanted a better life, I have to think about how I react to things and be more positive and not let someone control my actions. Yeah, I can’t help how I feel, but I can control what I do. I’m very capable of causing extreme harm. That’s for a fact. I’ve been in Iraq and experiencing things on the street. I know what I’m capable of, but I know the appropriate time to release that.
What can you tell us about your journey over the course of the 10 days as you embed further with the people of The Garden?
It’s a very odd, awesome experience. You’re pulled out of your own world and forced to hear everyone else’s perspective. You live in this almost imaginary reality where you don’t have power or the internet and are off your phone and are happy about it. I realized you can have so much less and are okay with it. That’s where true happiness is, not how much stuff you have. It’s about how content can I be with the least amount of things. I found myself happy living in a tent and eating garbage. It really made me think about what I’m doing with my life. I had all my needs met, except having my wife with me. It made me question everything.
At the same time, I’m like, “Screw this place.” That’s because I don’t own anything, except the stuff in my tent. I’m used to being the king of the household. Like my house is my castle. It’s a dictatorship when you really think about it in my house. You don’t have that here. It’s a conscious community. You collectively lead together. Coming from a military background was really weird for me. Every morning you wake up and do whatever you want. There is no time, no schedule. Whatever you feel like, you do. Somehow it’s beautifully chaotic it works. I still don’t know why it works, but just does.
You show vulnerability without your wife as you feel this sense of loneliness. How was it being away for that time?
I knew I would not do well without my wife because have such a strong bond. I’ve never been so in love with someone that I feel like I’m leaving something behind when I left. Plus, I want to go through life sharing my life experience with her. That was hard when she wasn’t there. I didn’t realize it would be that emotional for me. That was really hard.
Commune or cult?
I’m not going to tell you now, but I do give my diagnosis of the situation, probably in the last episode I’m guessing. One tidbit I can give you is I can understand why people think it is a cult. The more you deny something or hide something or don’t want to talk about something, the more guilty you look. You’ll see at the end of the season.
The Garden: Commune or Cult premiere, October 29, 9/8c, Discovery