Cancer Victory Garden in New Jersey

Cheryl Wachtel, RD, the oncology dietitian at Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center in Elizabeth, NJ, has started a small Cancer Victory Garden™ for her cancer center to celebrate and promote the 2010 National Nutrition Month theme, which is "Nutrition from the Ground Up!" This sounds like a perfect match to me!. :-)

Here are some photos and the email messages she sent out to the staff at her cancer center. Cheryl says that the plants have stirred up a tiny bit of a following, and she loves having them in the office with her.
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March is National Nutrition Month, and this year’s theme is “Nutrition from the Ground Up.” Dietitians are always encouraging a heartier consumption of fruits, veggies and herbs, which are loaded with vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants and fiber. And of course, produce is low in calories while it packs in all those impressive nutrients. Just about any which way dietitians promote health-care (or disease-care for that matter) involves a push towards eating more fruit and vegetables. I’ll remind the President of this.

So, let’s think “from the ground up” for improving our nutritional intake. On that theme, some Cancer Center dietitians throughout the country are starting “Cancer Victory Gardens” for their patients. This is being spear-headed by a well-spoken and well-published dietitian, who herself is a 3-time cancer survivor. Today, I started a small herb garden right here in my office. I bought a little “Jiffy Greenhouse” of 72 peat pods ($6.99 at Home Depot) and, with Francis’ (the IT-guy) help, planted parsley, cilantro, dill and oregano seeds “from the ground up.”

I’ve taken some pictures for you and it’s my hope to inspire you to start something like this at home. It’s easy, economical and fun (include the kids!) while providing a pesticide-free piece of sustainable agriculture in a small space. Francis even said he found the planting to be therapeutic.

I’ll be sending updates about our little urban garden until the harvest. My plan is to distribute the seedlings when they’ve sprouted to patients and staff to continue the growth at home, and hopefully, enjoy the bounty. Perhaps we should do some of the planting in the courtyard? Let me know if you have an idea as well.

Healthy eating,
Cheryl Wachtel, RD

(Photo: Starter kit)

(Photo: seed pods swollen with water)

(Photo: our IT guy, Francis, requested to lend a gloved hand)

(Photo: Planted parsley, cilantro, dill and oregano seeds “from the ground up", all ready for their sunny spot to start growing.)

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Thanks for sharing your Cancer Victory Garden™, Cheryl! This is exactly the type of project and adventure that will help inspire your patients to try their hand at this at home. Successful, low-budget small projects often lead to bigger ones. Your herb garden tray may be the first step to making use of the space in your cancer center's courtyard for vegetable gardening. Please keep us up to date. Parsley does usually take a long time to sprout, so don't give up!

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Watch your garden grow!

I am not sure how I stumbled on to this great web site, but The University of Illinois Extension has developed a very helpful website called "Watch Your Garden Grow" that gives beginning gardeners all the information they need to get started with some commonly grown vegetables.

I loved the page that has the individual vegetables listed by picture, then just click to get the info all compiled in one place, from spacing to problems (insects, etc) to recipes to home preservation directions. Just skimming through a couple of them I learned that (1) swiss chard is really a beet that has been bred to minimize the root storage form in favor of the beautiful and tasty leaves and (2) collards are often called 'tree cabbage'.

This is a great web-based resource! I'm sure there are many many many more. As I find them, I'll keep posting these treasure troves of information and inspiration.

Tonight I'm making soup using my own treasure trove of stored, canned, and frozen vegetables from last summer. It is beautiful using vegetable stock and canned tomatoes as a base, then adding corn, chopped multi-colored sweet peppers, garlic, sweet potatoes, and kale. I've also added some barley and red lentils and curry powder. Served with some locally-made bread and some of our home-made applesauce, the memories of last summer and anticipation of a great meal are just a few of the great ways that growing your own food can cultivate health.

(Photo: Garlic scapes)

While not the first crop to be ready, garlic scapes (from garlic cloves planted in the previous fall) will be harvested in June before the garlic bulbs are ready to be dug up and dried in July. I can't wait! What are you looking forward to eating that is grown in your garden?

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Who has gardens?

Are you wondering if your cancer center or health care facility has a garden of any kind? I just found a wonderful website, The Therapeutic Landscapes Network, that has dozens, if not hundreds, of healing gardens listed alphabetically by facility name.

These gardens are usually not vegetable gardens, but knowing that a medical center has already started the process of integrating nature and gardens into the healing environment keeps the door open to expand the vision of beneficial outcomes of actually incorporating a section devoted to vegetables and the healing experience that can come from actually participating in gardening (i.e., as opposed to viewing or sitting in nature, both experiences also beneficial but different from the experience of actually tending a garden).

I don't do nearly as much traveling around the country as I used to (by choice), but now I am motivated to always seek out and ask to see healing gardens wherever I am asked to speak or just visit for fun.

Check out the list to see if your cancer center is on the list. If not, starting discussion for a future project such as a Cancer Victory Garden™ will certainly be a rewarding and happy use of time and effort, both for yourself and all future patients. In addition, explore the entire website for additional information and inspiration about healing gardens and landscapes.

"He who plants a garden, plants happiness." ~ Chinese proverb

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Window Gardens

Here are two contrasting views of what can be done with windows:

(1) South-facing tall windows in the basement of the house we're remodeling. Look out - I cropped this picture to just show the windows, but this area is a hard hat zone and major trip hazard right now, seriously.


(2) Take a look at this short video about vertical window veggie farms. It shows what can be done to grow your own food with no outside space for gardening and no fancy or expensive gardening equipment of any kind (none!). This is amazing, and I wish all the success in the world to this group of young people! I'll be ready next year to be inspired by this video to do inside window-gardening during those dark days of winter, and likely year-round, too. No more excuses - find a window and get started.

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

California Dreamin'

No, not really! However, I am dreaming of spring in Michigan each time I walk by my two raised beds at our new farm. The frames were moved from our other home late in the fall, filled with compost, and then my husband hastily transplanted ~30 strawberry plants from our community garden to fill one of the 4' x 8' beds. The plants were covered with straw, which first blew off much of the bed until it was re-spread over the plants, became wet from rain and snow, and also weighted down with a branch (not very beautiful but very effective!).

(Photo: Raised beds, front one with strawberry plants and straw blown off half of it)

(Photo: Raised beds, left one with strawberries, straw re-spread, and branch on top, two warm - high 30's - and sunny days are starting to melt the snowcover)

I'm just now starting to plan what to plant in the 32 square feet of my other raised bed. How many kale plants or other cancer-fighting Brassicas can I plant in that space? What else to plant? How many other raised beds to build? How to keep the ground hogs and deer from nibbling away? So many options, so many challenges, so much dreamin'.

"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides"

~~W.E. Johns

Have you started your garden dreaming? I'll let you know what else I decide to plant. I'm looking forward to finally moving out to our farm, so our gardening will always be just out the backdoor.

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Best Gardening Quotation

"Life begins the day you plant a garden"

~~ Chinese Proverb

Isn't that a beautiful quotation, particularly being read by cancer survivors? The dreams, the planning, seed ordering or plant purchasing and planting in the ground, the weeding, watering, and nurturing of the baby plants to fruition, and then savoring the delicious eating many many months after the first thoughts about this (or next year's) garden. All that sounds like life to me.

I never got anything planted in the raised beds that my husband made for me at the beginning of the 2009 growing season. They have been finally moved out to our new home and farm, a spot chosen for them, the ground leveled underneath them, filled with compost, and are now ready to wait out the winter while I dream and plan what will go into them in 2010.

Those 2010 seed catalogs will be here before we know it. I just LOVE having things to look forward to. Why? I will share that planning future projects has been one of my long-time coping strategies that has been effective for me while dealing with getting through cancer treatments and then the following anxiety (even fears) associated with thoughts about recurrence. There is nothing like planning next year's garden (and even the year after that!) along with the step, step, step of implementation to take my mind off troubles and focus on pleasant thoughts instead, i.e. to begin living again. :-)

(Photo: The boxes were dismantled and moved out to the farm. A spot was chosen and they were reassembled. My husband did subsequently use the tractor blade to even out the ground underneath them.)

(Photo: Compost is in the raised beds, which will be raked and evened out to be ready for early planting next spring. Twelve rhubarb plants were dug up from our community garden and planted today along the side of the boxes where Kaya is tracking the scent of something, probably a pesky groundhog. They will soon be hibernating for the winter but will certainly cause some havoc next year until we get appropriate fences built - grrrrrrrr, which we will need to build anyway to keep the deer from both trampling and dining on our gardens. Another thing to plan!)

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul.

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Shelly's Cancer Victory Garden

I was pleasantly surprised to find this email message waiting in my inbox! Shelly gave me permission to share her experience with gardening (complete with photos!) with the hope that the joy she finds in her garden wll both inspire and empower another cancer survivor.

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Hello Diana:

I too am a Registered Dietitian (RD) and am currently undergoing treatment (clinical trials) for stage 4 melanoma. I have been on treatment since my diagnosis 3 years ago, but am doing extremely well - having learned to wake-surf behind our ski boat this summer and with a trip planned to Southeast Asia this January. I previously worked in a children's hospital in Dayton, OH - but now focus on my joy, and taking care of myself.

In addition, I am heavily involved as the Nutrition Educator for the Noble Circle Project (www.noblecircle.org), which is a grass-roots organization focusing on empowering women in the Dayton area for thriving beyond cancer via whole foods nutrition, exposure to complementary medicine forms such a Qi Gong, and group support.

I have been involved with Noble Circle since 2006, and I emphasize a whole-foods based diet. Really getting in significant quantities of high-quality vegetables and whole grains, and then tailoring the diet to work for the individual woman's needs and choices, whether she is vegetarian takes supplements, juices, etc. You may find on the Nobe Circle's website (which is due for a upgrade) that they started out with some pretty far-out ideas that I think were a little extreme for the average participant in our program. I really emphasize that making dietary changes is good, but also how you approach the diet and cancer journey is important: taking it easy on yourself and not using diet as another way to beat up on yourself. I try to move people away from fearing food, and finding ways to be more intimately connected with it - learning how to grow it, cook it etc...I try to emphasize the passion and joy available to us through our food.

I was inspired by your blog, actually all of them, and have been thinking of sharing pictures of my garden with you. My husband and I converted our entire backyard to garden 3 years ago, and as both of us are recovering engineers, we installed a drip line watering system which is automatically controlled. We are away for pretty long periods of time during the summer so it is nice to have the irrigation in place. I think some of the pictures show pretty well how the houses in our neighborhood are very close together, so it proves that you don't need a whole lot of space to grow a significant amount of food!

I plan to expose the ladies I teach nutrition to, to your blogs. We already have your book in our Noble Circle Lending Library. I thought you would enjoy the photos - and now I am off to harvest more brassica and crucifers....

Sincerely,
Shelly Knupp. RD

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Many thanks for sharing your joy of gardening, Shelly! My husband and I are going to install a drip-irrigation system in the large garlic beds at our new farm, too. I can't wait to have that feature in place and working! However, this summer we would not have needed it. In fact, although it rained and rained in spring and early summer, it finally dried up enough in July to harvest our garlic without it molding in the ground.

Many thanks also for all you are doing to help others during their cancer survivorship journey to become cancer 'thrivers'! The Dayton, Ohio area and The Noble Circle Project are certainly fortunate to have you sharing your professional expertise, passions, and compassion within their collective communities.

I hope our paths cross in the future at some point. Until then, I send you a cyber-hug and all my best wishes for continued health, healing, hope, and great gardening!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD