Cancer Victory Gardens™

New Cancer Victory Garden!

2012-01-16T12:36:00.004-05:00

I always start off my week by lighting candles of hope for all involved with a cancer journey at the website www.gratefulness.org. I send out that hope to everyone, the person with the diagnosis, all caregivers (professional, family, friends), plus all involved in the oncology research community. I always leave that website with a mix of feelings, yes, gratefulness, but also feelings ranging from melancholy to deep determination.

Today I had the exquisite pleasure of segueing directly from determination to pure inspiration and joy when I next opened up my Gmail email account (cancervictorygarden (at) gmail (dot) com) that I reserve for this blog to find a beautiful message from a young cancer survivor who embodies everything I had hoped to achieve with my CancerVictoryGardens blog. :-)

This young woman's own 'cancer victory garden' story and accompanying photographs brought tears to my eyes, tears of everything, from remembering tears of fear, tears of loss, tears of tentative hope, tears of resilience, tears of determination, tears of accomplishment, tears of wonder from self-discovery, tears of joy, tears of tentative hope again, tears of loving and being loved, tears of happiness from knowing I may have made a difference to one person. There are probably even more types of tears in that mix, too, but those give you some insight into the broad sweep of being inside my long cancer journey.

I am printing her story in its entirety. It is as clear as a bright, sunny day during a Michigan winter! Her accompanying photographs perfectly capture and convey the beauty and joy she has found in her life.

I'll sign off and then urge you to keep reading below my name where I am deeply honored to introduce and share Donna's Cancer Victory Garden in New Jersey. I hope the magic of the internet allows another person with a cancer diagnosis to find inspiration to live, and to live well after cancer by nourishing your own Cancer Victory Garden, no matter how small (start with one package of seeds in a pot) or where you live in this wide, wide world. :-)

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,
Diana Dyer, MS, RD
*****************

Submitted by Donna H. of Camden, New Jersey

In 2008, during a routine mammogram, an eagle-eyed radiologist discovered my invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer. A double mastectomy and 4 rounds of chemotherapy followed. I thought my life was over before it ever really began. I was filled with regret over all my past missed opportunities and I grieved for things I believed that I would never have, such as a child of my own. I struggled to find the strength to face my disease and endure treatment.

During my recuperation from surgery, my mother bought me a pack of seeds and a pink gardening kit. I was unimpressed. I lived in an apartment and I had cancer. I wasn’t in the mood to take on a new hobby, especially one that might involve bugs! My mom would not be deterred. She planted the seeds in a tray and placed it in my laundry room. She left me strict instructions about watering, and when and how to repot the seedlings when the plants were large enough.

So as not to disappoint her, I half-heartedly followed her instructions. I watered the tray of seeds and placed them in a sunny location. I checked on them every day. After a few weeks, a funny thing started to happen. I found myself looking forward to watching the progression of my little flower seedlings. I was happy and more than a little excited when the plants were big enough to be transplanted. After a few more weeks, as I neared the end of my chemo treatments, the flowers began to bloom. . I realized that the flowers symbolized so much for me about life and renewal and health. I was transfixed by the lovely profusions of colors and textures and smells. I rejoiced in the blossoms as much as I rejoiced at the end of chemotherapy.

From then on, the strength and beauty found in something so delicate inspired me. I discovered that I felt calmer and could forget about cancer when I tended to my flowers. Each day brought a new discovery about the plants. I realized that I loved digging in the dirt and caring for my plants. (Bugs be damned!) I enjoyed learning about the rhythms of life and how a little light, some water, and lots of love can produce something wondrous. It felt good to feel the warmth of the sun on my bald head and my arms felt more flexible after a few rounds of weeding.

Today, I have my own house with a little backyard. I grow flowers, organic vegetables and all sorts of plants. This year I even I added strawberries. My beautiful baby girl, whom I adopted last fall, enjoys being next to me outside while I weed, water and tend to my garden. We take pleasure in nature and our souls benefit from all the beauty around us. And my mom? She couldn’t be happier for her daughter, the gardener.

(Donna receiving chemotherapy)

(Donna's first flowers from the seeds given to her by her mother)

(Donna's adopted daughter Bella, the perfect name for this beautiful baby)

Funding Possibility - Your Cancer Victory Garden could be "Awesome"

2011-12-13T11:57:00.001-05:00

It's not even officially winter (even though our fields and pond are now frozen)
yet my thoughts are already with Spring, thinking about planting, thinking about
gardens, how the sight of little green things coming up through the soil is
life's hope.

I saw this website today http://www.awesomefood.net/, a foundation that provides
grants for many 'awesome' projects that provide hope from food and wondered if
it would be a potential source of funding for anyone out there who is interested
in getting a garden started at your cancer center. That seems like the
definition of 'awesome' to me!

This organization just awarded its monthly grant to SNAP Gardens, a non-profit
organization that wants to build national awareness that SNAP coupons (formerly
called Food Stamps) can be used to purchase seeds and plants for edible food. I
see a link here with all RDs since nearly 47 million Americans are now dependent
on SNAP benefits to put food on their table (and that is only 1/3 of the people
who are actually eligible, and even sadder and scarier statistic).

I don't know the percentage of cancer patients who also need food assistance,
but I would guess the numbers are high and growing. If your cancer center does
not have the logistics in place (this year) for a garden, maybe you could get
grant money, even from your own cancer center, to start seedlings for your
patients to take home focusing on those patients who qualify for SNAP.

The RD is the perfect professional to make sure all your patients using SNAP
benefits are aware of this aspect of their SNAP eligibility and also champion
this effort within their cancer center. I would love to feature each and every
one of you on my www.cancervictorygardens.com blog!

Two quotes I love and have certainly used before on this blog:

"I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there,
and I am prepared to expect wonders."
~~ Henry David Thoreau

"Life begins the day you plant a garden"
~~ Chinese Proverb

I'm thinking spring, light, and hope during these last short days of the year. :-)

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

All 1-2-3 blogs mentioned!

2011-10-26T23:09:00.003-04:00

Since October is the month designated to focus on breast cancer (research, screening, treatment options, survivorship, and hopefully also prevention!), I was recently interviewed for another blog written by Stephanie Clark, RD and Willow Jarosh, RD who interviewed me as a featured 'expert', i.e., knowing a thing or two about breast cancer and nutrition. :-) However, I was also very pleased that they included questions in the succinct interview on their blog about gardening, so in the end, all three of my blogs (along with my book and website www.CancerRD.com) were mentioned and tied together by very good questions.

The blog written by these two dietitians is sponsored by Bumble Bee tuna with a focus on whole foods, nutrition, and increasing activity. My plant-based and whole food approach to my diet, with lots of physical activity thrown in by both regular exercise and also gardening/farming, is a nice complement to the information provided by their blog. Donations from this blog are given to support a very worthy breast cancer organization based in Chicago called Y-Me? which helped me with emotional support after my first breast cancer diagnosis way back in 1984 when I was only 34 years old.

Why me, indeed! Hopefully some of you will also benefit from Y-Me?'s support services like I did.

In addition, because my readers know of my advocacy for reducing environmental risk of cancer by eating organic foods, I think you will also find the following blog post (Racing for the Cause) very informative, which is also written by another colleague, Melinda Hemmelgarn, MS, RD, and published at www.breastcancer.org.

Thank you, Stephanie and Willow and thank you, Melinda for both mentioning gardening (particularly growing organically) as a very achievable and effective way of decreasing your cancer risk!

Note my first recommendation about gardening is to start small. No one is expecting you to start a farm like my husband and I did! :-)

I will end with two of my favorite gardening (farming) quotations.

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
~~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,

but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
~~ Masanobu Fukuoka

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Cancer Victory Garden at The Dyer Family Farm

2011-10-25T22:23:00.000-04:00

Yes, we have been planting and planting and selling and selling thousands of garlic bulbs for these past two years, but our own personal garden during this time has either been entirely non-existent or sadly neglected. However, during late June (maybe early July), after we finally got the solar-powered electric fence put up around our family garden area at the farm, I planted a few very old seeds from my big box of seeds, seeds, and more seeds.

I weeded several times that first week, but then other priorities took over as the garlic harvest began in earnest followed in early August with prepping and attending farmers' markets on 3 consecutive days each week, with the markets finally ending a week ago. Thus, just this week (just this week!) I finally got back to my beds in the garden, first doing some serious weeding and then harvesting a few of the vegetables that managed to sprout (remember, these were old seeds that were planted quite late, i.e. after the summer solstice), managed to survive the weeds, managed to survive the consecutive 100+ degree days during July plus erratic watering. I'm not sure when we finally got a proper sprinkler for that garden and/or our water source, but I know that nothing was ideal this summer. I think what I am trying to say is that these vegetables are real 'survivors' because they actually managed to survive neglect! They must have really had a strong will to thrive, or maybe they really did thrive on neglect! :-)

So here they are; a carrot, two radishes, and one turnip. They are beautiful and they were delicious. Yes, they are already eaten. :-)

(Photo: First non-garlic vegetables from Diana's Cancer Victory Garden - at last!)

One of Henry David Thoreau's quotations illustrates the power and wonder of a seed, and I think my neglected seeds beautifully demonstrated that wonder. Indeed one might even consider the vegetables produced by these tiny and neglected seeds to be 'wonderful'. :-)

"I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there,
and I am prepared to expect wonders."
~~ Henry David Thoreau

Next year, next year! I can't wait to start planning, start planting, start growing, and start wondering. :-)

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

The New Frugality: The Organic Gardner

2011-05-29T10:40:00.000-04:00

Time Magazine recently had a great video about the increased interest in organic gardening, entitled The New Frugality: The Organic Gardner. However, please disregard !! the moderator's use of the word "resort" when he says something like "if you have to 'resort' to using your front yard ............ ".

Yes, yes, yes, use your front yard for growing vegetables! I guarantee you will increase your sense of community and have far more fun than when your garden is tucked away in the backyard. In addition, there is nothing that provides more happiness and a sense of wellness than making new friends and then giving away some of your delicious, home-grown vegetables. Now that would be a "Cancer Victory Garden" that is truly cultivating health!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Backyard (or front yard) gardeners 'rights'

2011-05-14T08:33:00.000-04:00

I know I don't post much here these days. Life is abundant right now with 'things to do' and most of those are things that must be done in contrast to this blog, which is further down on that type of list.

However, I heard a disheartening story on Michigan Radio yesterday about how 'rules and regulations' in Detroit were making it harder for community gardens to exist (which also made me wonder if backyard gardens were subject to these same rules), and then thankfully I saw the following uplifting piece of news this morning from San Francisco showing how one city understands and is both facilitating and advocating for the benefits to individuals and the community regarding gardening.

May 13, 2011

San Francisco Streamlines Backyard Gardeners Rights. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently voted to amend the city’s zoning code in such a way that now allows backyard growers to freely cultivate produce and sell it without having to purchase a conditional use permit which could cost up to $3,000. The ruling allows urban farmers with land plots measuring one acre or less to grow produce for commercial purposes through a streamlined permit process and at a much reduced cost. Backyard growers will also be able to sell “value added” items like jellies, salsas, herb salts, and other prepared items. Both for-profit and not-for-profit groups are covered by the new ruling. Which is expected to further expand the scope of community-supported agriculture programs in the city. (Natural News, 2011, http://www.naturalnews.com/032171_urban_farms_San_Francisco.html)

So yes, there is hope that reasonableness can preside. I hope Detroit takes notice! Gardens cultivate and nourish both physical health and economic health of individuals and communities. Doing everything possible to reduce barriers is not only reasonable but smart and necessary! In so many words, I believe that is even the by-line for this blog. :-)

Cultivating health through ALL gardens' nourishment of body, soul, and community,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Happiness comes from the dirt!

2011-03-13T15:46:00.001-04:00

Bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae, found naturally in the soil, can stimulate the cells in our brain that make serotonin, the molecule responsible for elevating mood and decreasing anxiety. The blog at the website Therapeutic Landscapes Network recently wrote about the various research studies that are looking into these connections and therapeutic benefits of contact with Mycobacterium vaccae, including increased quality of life (less nausea, less vomiting) when an IV preparation was given to patients with very advanced lung cancer.

I have highlighted the Therapeutic Landscapes Network website in a past posting on my blog as it has a section where it is trying to list all health care facilities that have gardens of some kind (most are more like sanctuaries or healing gardens, i.e., a place "to be", not necessarily vegetable gardens or gardens for more active involvement). Currently the list is alphabetical by name (not even by state), but they are in the process of reorganizing this information into a map, so you can search for healthcare gardens in a particular geographic region much more easily.

I believe this connection between soil and health is truly old knowledge, for which science is beginning to develop a fraction of understanding.

The old people came literally to love the soil and they
sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close
to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch
the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins
and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were
built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The
birds that flew into the air came to rest upon the earth and it
was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew.
The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

~~ Chief Luther Standing Bear, 1868-1939

Lakota Sioux Chief

Yes, the soil is soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing. It is good to touch the earth. I hope you find or create the opportunity to do so for both health and happiness!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

The Goodbye Cancer Garden

2011-01-24T19:21:00.001-05:00

I stumbled across an up and coming children's book called The Goodbye Cancer Garden written by Janna Matthies in which a family plants and tends a vegetable garden because the doctor says that Mommy's cancer will be better by "pumpkin time". It looks like a beautifully illustrated book by Kristi Valiant.

I know that one way I have coped during my sessions of chemotherapy is by planning on something special in the future and then focusing on steps here and now to get me there. A garden where one is looking forward to "pumpkin time" clearly fits that bill.

I look forward to reading this book after its publication on March 1, 2011. Until then, enjoy all your winter time reading seed catalogs to get ready for spring planting!

Here is one of my favorite gardening quotes, and indeed one of my overall favorite quotes:

"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi

A cancer diagnosis is a wake-up call to take the time to "un-forget ourselves". It's the time, sometimes the only time when one is given the time by family, friends, and society at large to rearrange life's many priorities during our busy busy lives, to set aside time to "heal thyself".There are many ways to approach one's healing of course. Some may work as well as gardening, but I can think of no healing therapy that is better. :-)

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

How to eat your herb garden!

2010-11-23T17:31:00.002-05:00

Months and months ago now I saw a newspaper article written about a Registered Dietitian sharing information about healthful culinary herbs along with easy recipes that included these tasty fresh herbs. I wrote to ask if I could share her information on this blog because her tips fit so perfectly with the "cancer victory garden" developed by another Registered Dietitian for her cancer center in New Jersey that I have written about on this blog.

Although winter is now setting in with earnest in many parts of this country, fresh herbs can still be grown inside in pots set in sunny windows. So yes, I am late posting this helpful info, but not too late!

Many thanks to Denise Boozell RD, LD - Indianola Hy-Vee Dietitian, Indianola, Iowa.

Tips for using Fresh Herbs in Cooking:
Add the more delicate fresh herbs – basil, chives, cilantro, dill leaves, parsley, marjoram and mint – a minute or two before the end of cooking or sprinkle them on the food before it is served.

The less delicate fresh herbs, such as dill seeds, oregano, rosemary, tarragon and thyme, can be added about the last 20 minutes of cooking.

May add fresh herbs to breads or batters at the beginning of the cooking process.

Uncooked foods – add fresh herbs & spices several hours before serving to allow flavors to blend.

A good rule of thumb when using fresh herbs in place of dried is to use two or four times more fresh herbs. For example, 1 tablespoon finely cut fresh herbs = ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground dried herbs.

Health Benefits of Fresh Herbs
Herbs are a rich source of antioxidants, similar to fruits and vegetables, when compared on a weight-for-weight basis.

Adding herbs when cooking is also a great way to add flavor, yet cut back on fat or sodium, making recipes healthier.

Some herbs help reduce bacteria levels in foods, acting as a natural preservative.

Basil: Most commonly used in Mediterranean and Asian cuisine. Add to salads, linguine and other pasta dishes. Take the leaves and crush them in your hand or snip with kitchen scissors to release their sweet aroma and taste. Basil grows easily in Midwest gardens, is rich in antioxidants and acts as an anti-inflammatory.

Oregano: Known as the “pizza herb”, oregano, along with basil, gives food an Italian flavor. Oregano adds a wonderful flavor to pizza, pasta, egg and cheese dishes. Try sprinkling a dash of oregano on fried eggs instead of salt, or sauté fresh vegetables in olive oil with garlic and oregano. Has antioxidant and anti-microbial benefits.

Chiles: Woodsy and warm flavors will penetrate even the most humble dish with a snip or two of chili peppers. Big chiles tend to be milder, while small chiles are the hottest. All chiles grow well in home garden plots. In the fall, hang the plants upside down to dry. Chili peppers contain capsaicin, responsible for the “heat,” which is a powerful antioxidant that may help lower bad cholesterol and rev up metabolism, and also help with stomach health.

Parsley: Eating parsley will freshen your breath and perk up the flavor of many dishes. Sprinkle chopped parsley on spuds, toss into marinades and dressings and add as a seasoning to almost any type of pasta salad. Has concentrated chlorophyll levels, which is thought to help “filter” and maintain health of the stomach, small and large intestine. It is filled with nutrients such as vitamins A, C and K. Parsley grows well in gardens.

Cilantro: Often used in Mexican, Asian and Middle Eastern cooking. It tastes like a sweet mix of parsley and citrus. Cilantro should be crushed or torn into tiny pieces before adding to recipes. It goes very well in salsa and bean dip. Is an antioxidant and aids digestion.

Dill: Used in cuisine with seafood, dipping sauces, potato salads and dishes, vegetables and pasta dishes. Has anti-microbial and antioxidant health benefits.

Recipes:

Mango Salsa
All you need:
1 mango, peeled, seed, and chopped (about 1 1/2 cups), I use frozen
1 medium sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup peeled and chopped cucumber (about half of a medium cucumber)
1/2 cup corn (fresh, frozen or canned)
1/2 to 1 cup chopped tomato
1 chopped chile pepper, optional
1/4 cup sliced green onions
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro or Italian/flat-leaf parsley
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon shredded fresh lime peel
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
All you do:
In a medium bowl combine all the ingredients.
Taste, add more salt and black pepper if needed.
Store in refrigerator up to 24 hours.
Let set out of refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving. This allows olive oil to come to room temperature.
Serve with tortilla chips. Also great served with tacos, fish, chicken or pork.
Note: truly best if you can obtain locally-grown tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and other vegetables.

Basil Pesto
Makes 1 cup.
All you need:
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Salt and ground pepper
All you do:
1. In a food processor or blender, combine basil, pine nuts and garlic. With food processor running slowly add the oil, then the cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Spread on toast or crackers
Tips – Add basil pesto to cooked pasta, a topping for baked potatoes, instead of tomato sauce on pizza, sandwich spread, even added to chopped hard-cooked eggs for a tasty egg salad. May use as a salad dressing by simply adding lemon juice to thin basil pesto.
Freeze in small jars or line ice cube trays with plastic wrap and fill with pesto. When frozen, remove cubes of pesto from trays and freeze in plastic bags.

Italian Bruschetta                Developed by the Hy-Vee Test Kitchen.
All you need:
Take & Bake French bread, baked & sliced - whole wheat or multi-grain if available
Fresh tomatoes, sliced thin
Fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt & Pepper
Fresh basil leaves
All you do:
Toast bread slices in oven.
On each slice, put a tomato slice and a cheese slice.
Drizzle with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Salt and pepper to taste and top with fresh basil.

Asparagus Mushroom Primavera
Source: Heart-Healthy Living   Makes: 4 servings, 1-1/2 cups each
Prep Time: 15 min. Cook Time: 10 min
All you need:
1 pound fresh asparagus spears (or use frozen if locally-grown fresh not available)
8 oz dried multigrain linguine
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 8-ounce package fresh button mushrooms, halved
¼ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup shredded fresh basil
¼ cup crushed red pepper, optional
All you do:
Snap off and discard woody bases of fresh asparagus. Rinse. Bias-slice asparagus into 1-1/2 inch pieces; set aside.
Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and black pepper; cook and stir for 30 seconds.
Add asparagus (wait a few minutes to add if using frozen), mushrooms, wine and ¼ teaspoon salt to the skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cook, uncovered, for 4 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in butter.
Drain pasta; add pasta to vegetables in skillet. Toss gently to combine. Garnish with basil and crushed red pepper if desired.
Tip: You can also use reduced sodium chicken or vegetable broth for the liquid instead of wine.

Fresh Mint Melon Ball Salad   (Serves 7) - a perfect late summer recipe when all melons are available locally and at their peak of flavors
Developed by the Hy-Vee Test Kitchen
All you need:
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1/3 cup Hy-Vee orange juice
2 tbsp Hy-Vee honey
3 cups watermelon balls, about half a watermelon
2 cups cantaloupe balls, about half a cantaloupe
2 cups honeydew balls, about half a honeydew
All you do:
In a medium bowl, combine mint, orange juice and honey. Blend until smooth.
In a large bowl, combine watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew. Pour orange juice mixture over fruit and gently toss.

Rosemary Focaccia
Source: Hy-Vee Seasons Healthy Living Recipes   Makes: 15 squares
All you need:
3 cups bread flour
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1 cup Hy-Vee skim milk, heated to 115 degrees F.
1 package Grand Selections active dry yeast
1 tablespoon Hy-Vee granulated sugar
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (or use 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
All you do:
Generously spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine 3 cups flour and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Process until combined, about 5 seconds.
In a 2-cup measure, stir together milk, yeast, sugar and dried rosemary. Whisk in 3 tablespoons olive oil. With food processor running, slowly pour milk mixture in a stream through feed tube.
On a lightly floured surface, knead dough by hand until smooth and elastic. Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray; place dough in bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Punch down dough and stretch into a ¼-inch thick rectangle. Place on prepared baking sheet. Evenly prick surface with a fork and make small indentations with your fingers. Brush on remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sprinkle the remaining ½ teaspoon kosher salt.
Bake for 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool briefly on a wire rack. Serve warm.
Nutrition Tip: Substitute whole grain flour for half of the bread flour for more fiber and a heartier flavor.

Thanks again Denise for helping us all eat our herb gardens! May we all be nourished by cultivating our sunny window winter "cancer victory garden" enjoying both great taste and great health. :-)

Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul,
Diana Dyer, MS, RD

What's New? The 2011 Cancer Victory Garden™ Calendar

2010-11-14T21:39:00.001-05:00

I am member of the The Oncology Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of The American Dietetic Association, which has created a gorgeous 2011 calendar inspired by my blog at www.cancervictorygardens.com called the Cancer Victory Garden calendar. These calendars will make delightful holiday gifts for almost everyone you know, including cancer survivors, gardeners, friends, family members, teachers, day care providers, and professional colleagues.

Each month features a beautiful picture of a different cancer fighting vegetable or fruit, along with text that discusses its health benefits and strategies for growing the produce in a home garden.

One or more calendars can be shipped to your home or work address.

Each calendar costs $10.00, plus a flat rate shipping charge of $5.00 (for 1 or more calendars).

To order calendars, make your check out to: ON DPG #20
(Check total = no. of calendars x $10/each + $5.00 shipping)

Mail the check to:
Maureen Leser
56 Boston Drive
Berlin, MD, 21811

Calendars will be mailed to the address on your check, or to another address as requested.

Funds from the sale of these calendars will be used to defray member costs of educational programs. In addition, ON DPG is making a donation to the Diana Dyer Cancer Survivors’ Nutrition Research Endowment at the American Institute of Cancer Research, which has provided research funds from proceeds of the sale of my book A Dietitian's Cancer Story (also a great gift!) since 2001 for AICR funded research projects that focus on defining nutritional strategies for cancer survivors to optimize the odds of long-term survival and increased quality of life.

If you have questions about the calendars, please contact my friend Maureen Leser, MS, RD, CSO, LD, at mgoreleser (at) gmail.com or call her at 240-994-0533.

If you are a member of the ON DPG you can preview the calendar at the ON DPG website: http://www.oncologynutrition.org/

If you are not a member of the ON DPG but are interested in previewing the calendar, please contact Maureen at mgoreleser (at) gmail.com. She will email a pdf that previews the calendar.

I have already seen these calendars, was given several complimentary copies, and also purchased several additional copies to give away. I hope you consider purchasing one or more - you will love them!

I'll end with how the calendar begins!

"Life begins the day you plant a garden"

~~ Chinese Proverb

Truer and more beautiful words could not be spoken!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Diabetes Victory Gardens, Too!

2010-09-10T11:51:00.000-04:00

No, the news piece on WGN-Chicago did not call these gardens exactly that, but the idea is exactly the same as Cancer Victory Gardens™. The Be Well Lake County(IL) Diabetes Program is encouraging people with diabetes to grow a "diabetes garden" to increase their intake of vegetables, i.e. by taking charge of one's own health through vegetable gardening. In addition to helping lose weight and eliminate some medication for diabetes control, the statement that really caught my attention was the gardener who stated "This is my first and only garden. Once we started, I found out it was really exciting. I love it and we're going to do it again". Those are just different words that convey exactly what I hope the tag line for my blog inspires: "Cultivating health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul".

To make this news piece even more exciting for me is that Cheryl Bell, the registered dietitian heading up the program is a friend of mine. I have no doubt that Cheryl's love of great-tasting food (and nothing beats locally-grown food for great taste!) plus her passion for using food to help improve the health of her community will lead to many more of Lake County's 50,000+ citizens who have a diagnosis of diabetes (without counting the thousands and thousands who also have pre-diabetes, many not yet diagnosed) becoming involved and excited about growning their own diabetes garden in the future.

Cancer, diabetes, what is next? There are no limits to the benefits of gardening! I would love to hear how you have started to use vegetable gardening to improve your personal health or the health of your patients, clients, and/or community, and please remember that gardening is also good for the soul, equally as important as no longer needing diabetes medication. :-)

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Cancer Victory Garden near the Pacific Coast

2010-07-14T20:49:00.000-04:00

I just love opening up my Gmail email account. I don't have time to do it everyday, but I do make sure I look at it every couple of days. Normally it is filled with my Google "news alerts", meaning that is the email address where I have a daily summary sent of what I "track on the web". I don't live a very exciting life as I am not tracking any celebrity per se but everything that is published about kale and other Brassica vegetables, which is very interesting to me. :-)

It is also the email address that my blog at www.cancervictorygardens.com directs people to use if they would like to send me a photo and a short description of their own cancer story and how gardening has been important to their cancer recovery. So every time I open that account, I confess that I am always a tiny bit excited and hopeful!

Today I received an email and photo from a newly diagnosed cancer survivor named Anne who gave me permission to share her story on this blog in the hopes that other people will also be inspired to both look to and work toward their future through gardening. Her email and one photo made my day in a way that brought a tear to my eye, a smile to my face, and joy and compassion in my heart, all at the same time.

Here is Anne's story.

*********************
Dear Diana,
Little did I know that I too have a Cancer Victory Garden.

I've been planting in this former bookcase for many years. (Using a bookcase was
a quick way to get a raised bed). On June 2, after getting my cancer diagnosis,
I did two things. The first was to drive to the beach and dip my toes in the
Pacific. The second, as a deliberate act of looking to the future, was to get
some veggies and herbs to plant. Plum tomatoes, pickling cucumber, thai basil,
tarragon, and dill and nasturtium seeds. They are all coming along nicely. Saw
the first nasturtium bloom yesterday and am about to harvest the first cucumber.

Anne M Bray http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/annembray

***********************

I can see the nasturtium blooming, which is beautiful, in fact, at first glance, it seems too beautiful to eat (even though it is an edible flower!). However, I can also see how its full healing potential could be utilized and appreciated by including it as both a decorative and healthful component in a salad.

Gardens can heal our bodies and our spirits, by giving us a means to look both forward and inward, as Anne has expressed. The blooming edible flower is a perfect example of how to capture and take delight in all of the ways that a garden can bring joy and healing to us.

Thank you, Anne, for sharing your cancer victory garden story. I hope you will send me period updates.

I send you all my best wishes first as you undergo your cancer therapy and then beyond to your cancer recovery journey. May you have decades and decades of health, healing, and hope along with enjoying your bookcase gardening!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Diana's Cancer Victory Garden is at the Farmers' Market

2010-06-14T10:58:00.000-04:00

I am cross-posting from my dianadyer.com blog (below the photo), so you can see what my husband and I are up to these days. To bring you all up to date, in a nutshell, just over a year ago my husband and I bought some foreclosed property (with a home that needed serious repairs) to start a small organic farm, focusing initially on garlic. We spent all of last summer deciding how to get started with the growing of our garlic, got 40 varieties planted last fall, then started getting nature out of the house (plants and animal) plus the repairs and remodeling of the house all winter and spring of this year, began harvesting in early May with "green garlic", have just started harvesting garlic scapes (the 'stem' that hard-neck varieties of garlic sent up after their leaves are all up - which should be cut off to encourage larger bulbs underground), and will be harvesting the bulbs beginning in July.

Since we sold all the May green garlic to Zingerman's Deli, The Grange Kitchen & Bar, and Pastabilities, all in Ann Arbor, MI, we never got to the farmers' markets with our first crop! We decided to start with the farmers' markets when our garlic scapes came in and then sell to the chefs second, because we want the fun and pleasure of being part of the local foods community at the markets, which had been our initial goal.

So here we are with the results of our own Cancer Victory Garden™ - the experience and feelings were pure joy. Dick and I were both too busy to take our own photo or shed a few tears of happiness and gratefulness. That sums up a year (and many many more before that) in the smallest nutshell possible. :-)

My husband and I grinning like little kids on Christmas morning on our debut day as vendors selling our garlic scapes (7 varieties this week - 15 varieties will be ready for week #2) at the Ypsilanti Downtown Farmers' Market June 8, 2010 - photo taken by Cara Rosaen, Marketing Director for the brand new website RealTimeFarms.com.

Please check out the RealTimeFarms.com website - it is designed to connect people to fresh, local sources of food by providing "real time" information (including beautiful photographs) about the location of farmers' markets around the country along with what is available to purchase today, right now, , i.e. "real time". It is an interactive site that you (yes, you!) can also use to load up information about what you see available at farmers' markets where you live.

Help promote locally grown food by your local farmers! Your local farmers (like us!) thank you from the bottom of their hearts. :-)

Unlike grinning kids who have the pleasure of having gifts just appear on Christmas morning, my husband and I fully appreciate every aspect of both the years of hard work leading up to this moment and our extreme good fortune to have arrived at this moment. I just turned down a cancer survivorship speaking invitation because I am too busy farming, but that does not mean I have forgotten "where I have come from" to get here. I am a very grateful cancer survivor every single day, hoping that I can still help others plant and cultivate their own seeds leading to a successful survivorship journey, too.

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Grow your own - don't wait for the US food supply!

2010-05-24T13:18:00.002-04:00

Here are a few of last week's headlines from news outlets in the US and UK and blogs around the world:

"Not enough fruits and veggies"
"Fighting US Cancer: Diet, scant exercise problems"
"Insufficient Fruit and Vegetables to Make American Diet Healthy"
"US doesn't grow, import enough fruit, veggies"

Pure and simple, in spite of the abundance of produce you see at grocery stores and farmers' markets, the US does not grow enough fruit or vegetables to provide the recommended "5-a-day" amount to every person living in the US. In fact, the US grows only about half of the fruit and vegetables needed for this recommendation to optimize overall health. In addition, the scientist who is quoted in this study (Susan Krebs-Smith, PhD of the National Cancer Institute) also noted that people tend to overestimate the amount of exercise they really do, which of course also is a contributor to overall good health.

How to take those two observations and turn them into a better reality right now (rather than waiting for the USDA to get its agricultural policies in line with the US Dietary Guidelines) - why, plant a garden, of course! I'll bet you knew I was going to say that. :-)

Here is another little known fact.

The USDA reports that ~13 million additional acres are needed to grow the produce required in order for the nation to consume the amount of domestically produced fruits and vegetables as recommended by the US Dietary Guidelines.
Does that seem like an enormous amount of land? Where to obtain those acres?

In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that there are more than 31 million acres of grass, an area equal to the size of the New England states., and over 80% of this grass is found in residential lawns. (The Lawn Institute, Rolling Meadows, IL)

This is not difficult math! :-) We have plenty of space in this country to make up this difference and more. Get down, get dirty, get gardening, get healthy!

With cancer centers not only wanting to treat a person's cancer but get them on the way to overall good health, it makes perfect sense to me that combining healthy food and exercise by gardening is a no-brainer so to speak. :-)

One of the biggest trends is increasing interest in vegetable gardening with 35% of US households participating in food gardening in 2009. (National Gardening Association) I encourage all cancer centers to begin leading by example by planting their own version of a Cancer Victory Garden™ in whatever space they have (using current landscaping space, container gardening, roof-top gardens, digging up some of their lawns, even digging up pavement - Cleveland Clinic did this!, etc, etc).

I repeat - Get down, get dirty, get gardening, get healthy! It's time to take all avenues to health into our own hands, literally! :-)

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Cancer Victory Garden in Scotland

2010-05-10T18:20:00.002-04:00

Some time before the holidays last year, I began communicating with another long-term childhood cancer survivor from the UK. Many of our similarities are uncanny, in fact they seem like serendipity, i.e., the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for! Here is her "cancer victory garden" story.

****************************
As a fellow neuroblastoma survivor, but from Scotland, I am amazed to see how Diana and I have traveled very different roads but hold very similar views on food and gardening. I also had neuroblastoma at a very young age, at 18months-in the late 1950's, and was given a series of terminal diagnoses, but recovered after very extensive surgery and radiotherapy.

As a child I was brought up eating a lot of vegetables that my father grew himself, which always included kale, seen as an essential ingredient in my mother's delicious home made soup. As a teenager I became vegetarian, for ethical reasons at the time, and read a lot on nutrition, dipping into naturopathic books.

At age 20, I was doing voluntary work at a holiday home for disabled people in England when I was given a copy of 'The Vegan' magazine, and in it found an advert which stated a free organic gardening course was being set up at a major naturopathic clinic near London, food and accommodation would be provided. I had never heard of 'organic' gardening, nor had anyone I asked, but the course sounded interesting so I wrote off and was invited to join up.

As it turned out, I was the only student enlisted, and the course never actually started (!), but I worked in a lovely walled garden, from which vegetables were provided for the clinic. I also enjoyed meeting many of the fascinating professionals working at the clinic. To top it off, all meals were provided, and they were delicious vegetarian gourmet food to me. I did get a lot of experience working in the garden. There were some gardeners there who did teach me some organic practices, and I remember I even spent my 21st birthday planting out rows of young plants. I had not told anybody there it was my birthday, and family and friends were far away, and I really had no money at all at the time. I even remember picking bags of nettles after work to cook up myself to keep me going until meal time.

There were vegans and many vegetarians amongst the staff, and knowing nothing of my past medical history, they took me under their wing as their youngest staff member and instilled in me the importance of fruit and vegetables, whole foods and the confirmation that meat was not necessary in my diet. After a few months in this garden, I heard about a young couple in the South of Ireland who had set up an organic smallholding and needed help. I was offerred a lift part of the way, so I worked there for a few months, learning more from them.

I settled down to a more conventional life after this, going to university, getting a nursing degree, becoming a midwife and district nurse. I always ate differently from others though as I ate a lot of seeds, grains, loads of raw vegetables, and a very high percentage of my diet as fruit and veg. When I did marry and get a garden, one of the first things we did was to make a vegetable patch and grow kale and rhubarb. My children helped plant seeds and weed, and we tried a variety of fruit and vegetables each year. Our biggest success was a 10 year old packet of tomato seeds, which I thought I might as well try rather than just throw away. My daughter sowed them with a new packet, but it was the old variety that produced a huge number of plants, enough to give away to neighbours, and then such a big harvest of outdoor tomatoes that we were still eating them 6 months later.

My father kept a 1 acre vegetable garden himself until he was 92, so I have had a lot of good family examples plus a lot to live up to!

I am convinced my diet and exercise has played a large part in the health I have today. Saying this, I did discover a lump in my breast at age 50 which turned out to be breast cancer, but the radiotherapy I had to that side of the chest as a very young child put me at very very high risk of this. I feel sure my diet gave me extra decades before this happened, and luckily I caught it at an early stage. Despite having had radiotherapy to the left side of the chest as a very young child, I am still very fit and have an active job as a nurse, and have two beautiful strong healthy daughters.

Since learning about the increased risk of late effects such as breast cancer for female childhood cancer survivors who received radiation to the chest as part of the childhood cancer treatment, I have been trying to work in this country to raise awareness of these issues along with the importance of diet and exercise for reducing the risk of cancer and even late effects such as heart disease. I was immensely impressed when I came across Diana's blogs and website and saw all she had set up on these topics already.

I was honoured when she asked me to share my story of my gardening and the many ways I have both enjoyed it and likely benefited from it. Thanks Diana!

Caroline McManus
Edinburgh, Scotland

(Photo: Caroline and her daughter - age 3, taken in 1997 in front of her father's vegetable garden in Scotland)

*****************

Caroline,

Thank you, thank you for sharing your own "Cancer Victory Garden" from Scotland. Your journey is so inspirational that it brings tears of happiness and joy to my eyes. Not only do you have quite a lot of years to "live up to" as you stated in regards to your father's garden, but you have decades of gardening ahead of you to enjoy.

I have no doubts that your ultra-healthy diet not only gave you a long span of time between the radiation treatment for your neuroblastoma, it also likely gave you a better prognosis after the diagnosis. Please keep spreading the word in the UK and Europe as you advocate for healthy lifestyles for both cancer prevention and cancer survivorship. We all want to live as well as possible as long as possible. With your dedication to these ideas, and using gardening as one activity to promote these healthy lifestyles, you will make a difference in the lives of many, many people.

I'm going to end with one of my favorite quotations. It just reminds me of you Caroline!

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons.

It is to grow in the open air,

and to eat and sleep with the earth. 

~~ Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

You are the embodiment of the "tag line" of this blog. Now I know I just need to get back to visit Scotland again. :-) Until then, I'm sending you a cyberhug!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Update #3 - Cancer Victory Garden in New Jersey

2010-05-05T22:10:00.000-04:00

Here is the final update from the 2010 Cancer Victory Garden at the Trinitas Cancer Center in Elizabeth, NJ!
*************
Diana -

Regretfully, we got word that we can't use the courtyard at Trinitas for gardening--at least for this year. However, the good news is that I'll be doing another indoor garden next year, and the complementary medicine RN will work on starting a healing garden at that time. At least this got the ball rolling!

I did distribute the plants as I was getting so many requests for the plants (mostly the cilantro). I wound up putting them in the plastic cups primarily to save the cost of individual planters. Each plant had a label on its cup stating what the plant was, along with strict instructions to re-pot into a container with drainage. I even sent an email out to the staff the next day to remind them to re-pot the plants. I also included info about how some of the herbs can be used plus a recipe for taboulleh to use the parsley). Even employees that I didn't know very well were stopping by and asking for a plant. It was quite a social event for the patients as well.

Thanks for all your blog postings. I'm home today from work and plan to read the recent issue of our Oncology Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group newsletter ("Connections") about all the cancer victory gardens. Sometimes, I feel so overwhelmed with things to do, but then I see you writing blogs, writing articles, giving presentations, farming, cooking, having your sons wedding soon, etc, and it truly reminds me how much we can all do. Thanks for the inspiration that you share with your colleagues and cancer patients everywhere. :)

Here's my final pictures to you of our 2010 Cancer Victory Garden. Good luck on all your exciting endeavors.

My best,

Cheryl

Latha requested the first cilantro plant

Tray of gorgeous, fragrant oregano ready to be distributed to patients and staff

One nurse asked to help pot the herbs. (too bad she didn't tell the doctor, who was searching for her and found her with dirt on her gloves!)

All those plants going to a new home with love. Thanks for sharing your love for good food and nutrition with your cancer community, showing everyone that it all starts with "nutrition from the ground up".

I'm going to end with a short poem by one of my favorite writers, a farmer-poet-philosopher, Wendell Berry. His words speak to and reinforce Cheryl's efforts to cultivate her community within her own cancer center, which is so important for both the people coming there for care and hope and also for the people providing that hope through their professional care and caring.

“Because a community is, by definition, placed,
its success cannot be divided from the success of its place....
its soil, forests, grasslands, plants and animals, water, light, and air.
The two economies, the natural and the human, support each other;
each is the other's hope of a durable and livable life."

~~Wendell Berry

Please keep us informed next year when your indoor gardens begin again and your cancer center's courtyard gets an update and new life added to it! How fortunate the Trinitas Cancer Center is to have this new annual tradition to look forward to and participate in!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Update #2 - Cancer Victory Garden in New Jersey

2010-04-23T13:17:00.000-04:00

Here is the second update from the Cancer Victory Garden at the Trinitas Cancer Center in Elizabeth, NJ!
****************
Hi Diana- Just to keep you posted about the herb garden at Trinitas Cancer Center in Elizabeth, NJ.

We have lots of herbs!!

When I put out the signal that I was looking for someone to take over the garden, our Complementary Medicine Nurse contacted me. She would love to start a healing garden in the courtyard with these plants. What could be better??? Hospital administration still needs to give her the okay, but she's coming upon some roadblocks. She has a lot of plans and it warmed my heart to know someone else wants to go forward with this project.

Here are some recent photos.

(Photo: Dill)

(Photo: Cilantro)

(Photo: Oregano)

(Photo: Curly Parsley)

(Photo: Everything growing in the tray - looks like a complete success!)

******************

It won't be long before the baby plants will be transplanted to go home with patients and hopefully also into a new herb garden in the courtyard of the cancer center.

How lucky your patients are to have you on the medical team contributing to their comprehensive care at your cancer center. Please keep us updated!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Finding Gardening Space

2010-04-23T03:25:00.000-04:00

Want to garden but have no space of your own? Want to move beyond just the pots or handing plants on your balcony? Here's a new free match-making website to help you find that special space where you can garden on someone-else's land!

SHARED EARTH LAUNCHES THE LARGEST COMMUNITY GARDEN IN THE WORLD.
SharedEarth connects land owners with gardeners and farmers.

Austin – SharedEarth (www.sharedearth.com) launches as the world celebrates Earth Day.

SharedEarth.com is a free match-making website that connects land owners with gardeners and farmers. Land owners share their land with someone they trust and get free fruits, vegetables and flowers. Gardeners and farmers get free access to land and the opportunity to grow what they love. The produce is shared between the two parties as they see fit. The result is a more efficient use of land and a greener planet.

“Community gardens exist in every major city in the United States, yet virtually all have waiting lists. With over 25 million square feet of shared space on the system, SharedEarth.com has created an alternative with the largest community of private land owners and gardeners on the planet. We are making more efficient use of land and a greener planet, one garden at a time,” said SharedEarth.com Chairman and Founder, Adam Dell.

Much like online dating sites, SharedEarth.com users create their own profile and find matches based on criteria such as location, years of gardening experience and the type of produce to be grown. Gardeners and farmers find the service useful because they are able to gain free access to land. Land owners find the service useful because they often lack the time, experience or commitment needed to cultivate a productive garden on their property.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the best-selling books The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, had this to say about Shared Earth: “Whoa! What a grand idea.”

Shared Earth was born out of Dell’s own experience looking for help growing a garden on his property. He turned to the Internet to find a qualified match. And now he reaps the rewards of this partnership through the fruits and vegetables he eats every day. SharedEarth.com was established as a not for profit sustainable corporation to help facilitate this process for others.

Please visit www.sharedearth.com for more information and to register for FREE today.

Gosh, what an opportunity! Good luck and have fun finding gardening space for your own special Cancer Victory Garden!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Michelle Obama visits San Diego community farm and finds a Cancer Victory Garden™

2010-04-16T20:34:00.003-04:00

No, the article or person interviewed didn't call her community garden plot a Cancer Victory Garden™, but indeed that is what she is describing. Quoting from the article in today's news:

Tsitsi Mutseta, who moved to San Diego from Zimbabwe eight years ago, said the garden helped ease her mind as she adjusted to her new life in the United States, far from her family.

In addition, Mutseta is fighting cancer and said she told Obama the garden has given her a reason to live.

"I told her I come to the garden to relieve my pain. I get food from the garden that is organic and it connects me with my family because I grew up on a small farm in Zimbabwe," said Mutseta, a tall woman who hugged Obama and gave her leaves from her kale crop. "She said she would pray for me and she loved what I did in the garden."

And how apropos that this woman gave Michelle Obama leaves from her kale plants. Maybe I will cross post this article on my kale blog, too. :-)

In all seriousness, what this woman has experienced and is expressing in this article is exactly what I had in mind and can relate to myself as she describes how gardening is helpful during her cancer journey. The relief from pain, whether physical or emotional pain or both, through the active connection to the earth by gardening is healing for both the body and spirit. There is no stress of needing to understand or use a new language (whether a recent immigrant learning English or a new cancer patient learning suddenly thrust into the situation of needing to learn "medicalese"). Indeed, I don't believe there is any pill, vitamin, or cancer therapy that can do all of that, especially one that can produce so many benefits at such a low cost and without any side effects.

A book that Michelle Obama and others might wish to read is The Earth Knows My Name by Patricia Klindienst, which lets immigrants to the US tell the stories of how their gardening efforts have helped them to retain their cultural heritage. I confess that I picked up this book, thinking I would "breeze through it". Not only did I not breeze through it, I read it three times.

The first reading actually produced many tears, tears from seeing beauty but also tears that come with sadness and loss, feeling deep compassion for all that these immigrants had left behind along with the many difficulties that came with adjusting to a new life in the US (again, a path that cancer survivors often experience, as life is never the same again, even living in the very same place). The second time I read it, I read it slowly, very slowly, and let myself draw pictures in my mind as I imagined each garden and each gardener. The third time I read the book I actually read it aloud to my husband, just for the pleasure of hearing these stories, and imagining the voices of each immigrant as they expressed their hopes. I can honestly say that, even without any pictures in this book, it is one of the most beautiful and most emotionally-engaging book I have ever read.

In fact, I have recommended this book to every professor I have met who teaches a course in Community Nutrition or Community-based Food Systems. In addition, it was reading this book that led to my deeper understanding of how gardening is potentially beneficial for cancer patients and actually may be the most under-appreciated "complementary medicine" (CAM) therapy available. Hopefully through this blog, and efforts of others, a recommendation that cancer patients consider gardening as an option for potentially beneficial "self-help" complementary medicine therapies will become common enough that gardening as a CAM therapy may be an example of "everything old is new again". :-)

What this remarkable woman Tsitsi Mutseta has done, through her small garden in San Diego, is to do her very best to emulate the motto of this blog, i.e., to cultivate her own health through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul.

I send her (and all others on a cancer journey) my heart-felt wishes for good gardening, health, healing, and hope!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

I'll be watching Dirt: The Movie

2010-04-15T12:05:00.000-04:00

This post is a cross-posting from my dianadyer blog (my first time to do so) to make sure that all my blog readers have an opportunity to watch the upcoming documentary next week, as important to all cancer survivors as it is to the rest of the television watching audience.

****************

If you haven't picked up on this yet, my blog has a pretty wide range of topics, all related to my far-reaching range of interests. I am putting the date and time on my calendar for watching the following show: Dirt: The Movie, airing next week on PBS TV channels. I honestly cannot remember the last time I did that for something on TV (oops yes I can - I do love to watch the Wimbledon tennis women's finals so I always make sure I know when that is being broadcast), so I highly recommend that you do the same.

Here is the link to the movie info. You will also see a link on that page to find the day/time of showing according to where you live.

The movie is about how we care for (or don't) our soil, the very foundation of our food production and thus life and health on this planet. The word 'dirt' is just a catchier word. In fact, I have heard that the author of the book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations took flak from his professional colleagues (other geologists and soil scientists) for the title of his book, but that is what big publishing houses do to try to catch the public's attention in order to increase sales (most authors lose control over such details as the title and the cover image when their book is published by one of the main book publishing companies, just one reason I have turned down offers from two big publishing companies to take over publishing my book).

Two images I have kept in mind after reading Dirt are the following:

Modern agricultural practices are "soil mining",

meaning we are rapidly outstripping the Earth's natural rate of

restoring topsoil.

The world loses 83 billion tons of soil each year.

I actually feel that reading Dirt a few years ago was nearly as life-changing, i.e., expanding for my view of the world, as when I read Diet for a Small Planet in the early 1970's. Both books permanently shaped my opinions as a nutrition professional by understanding that our choices of food to eat have social consequences to economic consequences. I find it terribly disheartening that I learned none of this during my professional nutrition education. The next book on the top of my "to read pile" (very large) is The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture by Sir Albert Howard, originally published in 1947, re-published in 2006 with a new introduction by the farmer-poet-activist Wendell Berry. I am only musing at this point, but when reading it, I will pondering if this book should be the first book read by all nutrition professionals in training.

This movie is being shown in celebration of next week's 40th anniversary of Earth Day, but make no mistake, if we don't change our agriculture systems to focus on practices that preserve and rebuild the health of our soils around the world, it is not the earth that will be the loser, but humanity itself (i.e., no soil, no food). I would hope that the movie makes this point clearly.

Ending with another of my favorite quotations about the soil, here is one that is especially apropos:

The farther we get away from the land, the greater our insecurity.
~~ Henry Ford

Cultivating health (by caring for our soils) through a garden's nourishment of both body and soul

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Update #1 - Cancer Victory Garden in New Jersey

2010-03-30T10:51:00.004-04:00

This is great - read on and enjoy the smells! Thanks, Cheryl. :-)
Diana

***************
Hi again Diana- Just wanted to keep you posted on our little herb garden at the Trinitas Cancer Center in Elizabeth, NJ...

We have sufficient oregano that there is a noticeable scent. It doesn’t quite smell like I’m cooking pizza in my office, but there is nice fragrance when you get near the little oregano sprouts. This has grown so quickly and full that it had to be thinned out.

The dill had to be thinned out too as it was growing too wildly for our little peat pods. The tops of a few of the sprouts are unmistakably dill, with their feathery blooms.

The cilantro has only one or two tiny sprouts that pushed through. And one little leaf looks just like cilantro should. I assume this herb takes a while to grow.

Parsley has pushed past the surface too and seems to be growing nicely.

So we have a little garden! I’m quite excited to prove that growing herbs indoors is simple. Experience is not required. (And I'm glad to avoid the embarrassment of failure). I've sent out a couple of emails to the staff to update them on the herbs. A few people stop by to look. Our IT guy, Francis (he was in the first batch of pix I sent you), bought the same set of 72 peat pods and a bunch of different seeds. He, his wife and their 2 young sons have been having a ball planting and watching the seeds grow at home.

Next, I'll probably be making individual plants for the patients and staff to take home. The man at Home Depot suggested I just use paper cups to re-pot the plants for travel, so I"ll try that. I already bought the potting soil, but the plants aren't ready yet. I'll make sure the plant is labeled on the cup, and I was thinking of providing a recipe along with the plant. My supervisor would love to see this become a full "Cancer Victory Garden" in our courtyard, but I'm not sure about that yet. I'll definitely need some help with that!! I'm planning to take the CSO exam in September and I've started an online study group, so that will be taking up a bunch of my time. But, we'll see what happens.

❧ Cheryl Wachtel, RD

Here are some updated pix:

(Photo Below: Our thinned out herb garden: parsley, cilantro, dill and oregano)

(Photo Below: dill and oregano)

(Photo Below: parsley (first 3 rows), then 3 rows of cilantro. You have to look closely for the cilantro.)

I repeat - this is GREAT! I'll just bet that the staff and patients at your cancer center will jump at the chance to help develop and maintain a Cancer Victory Garden in your courtyard. It is no longer a surprise to me to find there is interest, talent, skill, and love just waiting in the wings to be involved with such a worth-while effort. :-)

Keep us all updated periodically!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

A Cancer Victory Garden™ is for memories, too

2010-03-29T12:59:00.003-04:00

I have a very wide vision for this blog and the concept of a Cancer Victory Garden™. I am fortunate to be using my gardening experiences during the on-going recovery from my own cancer therapies. However, caring for my garden, nurturing new life, is also very important to me because having my hands in the soil both physically and spiritually connects me to all who have gone before me.

Having personally experienced deep sadness and grief from losing friends and relatives to cancer, memories of both past loss and happiness are part of my every day life in addition to contributing to my deep appreciation and gratefulness for each moment of today. Feeling part of the sacred circle of life comes most easily to me when outside in my gardens, while working the soil and tending the plants with the sun on my back, my knees on the ground, and my hands in the dirt.

Thus, I hope this blog will inspire everyone who has been touched by cancer (no matter how, when, or where you are on your personal cancer journey) to get your hands in the soil to first honor life that has been and then cherish and cultivate life for today and life still to come.

I'll end by sharing some of my favorite quotations that combine my love of the land, soil, and gardening with the deepest kinship and respect for our soil's life-force that nourishes us all.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet
 is the ashes of your grandfathers.
So that they will respect the  land, tell your children that the earth
is rich with the lives of  our kin.
Teach your children what we have taught our children,  
that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls  the sons of the earth.
If men spit upon the ground,  they spit upon themselves. 

~~ Native American Wisdom

The land is a mother that never dies.
~~ Maori Proverb

“Land...is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through
a circuit of soils, plants and animals.”
~~ Aldo Leopold

A garden is evidence of faith.
It links us with all the misty figures of the past who also planted
and were nourished by the fruits of their planting.
~~ Gladys Taber

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Accessibility Gardening Tips for People with Physical Limitations

2010-03-14T11:09:00.006-04:00

I recently read a discussion about the use of raised beds to meet the needs of gardeners who have physical disabilities, including those who would need to garden from a wheelchair. Although the question that sparked the discussion related to installing raised beds in public parks, I immediately thought the information provided would be very helpful to anyone considering gardening on the grounds of a cancer center, health care facility, or elder-care residence.

I asked permission to reprint the resources and words of wisdom provided on this listserv discussion shared by Dave Wilson of King's Agriseeds in Ronks, PA.

Here are Dave's suggestions, followed by his list of suggested resources for further information:

• Primarily the major factors to consider are accessibility, space allowance, height and reach ranges and designing an accessible route especially for someone in a wheel chair. The size of the pathway between the garden beds needs to be accessible by a wheel chair so that a person in a wheelchair can turn around. There can’t be protruding objects or surfaces that would inhibit someone in a wheel chair and the surface path needs to be “improved” or hardened enough so that a person in a wheel chair would not get stuck as in a wet muddy soil.

• Beds need to be built up above the ground level with wooden sides to fortify them which then lets you raise the soil surface level up to a height that a person in a wheel chair can reach in and access.

• Other planting table beds can be adjusted to a height on a raised bedding table full of soil similar to what we may have in a green house wooden raised table bed that is used to start greens, but the height of the table has to be adjusted so that someone sitting in a wheel chair could reach into the table bed and work by reaching their arm in to seed, transplant, weeding or watering the plants etc.

• The following web site has many good resources listed: http://www.inthecountrygardenandgifts.com/jspece/gardening/accessible.html

• This link specifically about using raised garden designs and shows some pictures of these. http://www.inthecountrygardenandgifts.com/jspece/gardening/raisedbed.html

Also look into:

Adil, Janeen. ACCESSIBLE GARDENING FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. Bethesda, ND: Woodbine House, 1994. RM 735.7 .G37 A35 1994

Chaplin, Mary. GARDENING FOR THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED & ELDERLY. London: Batsford, 1980. RM 735.7 .G37 C42 1980

Please, Peter, editor. ABLE TO GARDEN: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR DISABLED AND ELDERLY GARDENERS. London: Batsford, 1990. RM 735.7 .P54 1990

Woy, Joann. ACCESSIBLE GARDENING: TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR SENIORS & THE DISABLED. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997. RM 735.7 .G37 W69 1997

(Photo: Example of a raised bed that is accessible for a person using a wheelchair)

In addition, I just stumbled onto this article, which gives many specifics about garden designs for people using wheelchairs. I especially liked their recommendation that the entire bed be raised with space underneath either for the person's knees or for storing gardening tools. The second recommendation that I really liked was including a chair or bench for a friend!

If anyone develops a Cancer Victory Garden™ at their cancer center or other health-care facility, I hope you take this information into consideration and find it useful. I was so weak and debilitated during my chemotherapy in 1984 and 1995 that I would have loved to have wheelchair accessible raised beds for gardening. I still remember trying to both plant and weed by lying on my side along some of our gardens, because I was too weak to sit up unsupported. I know your patients will thank you!

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Cancer Victory Garden in New Jersey

2010-03-09T12:25:00.004-05:00

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.
*****************
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.)

*******************
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!

2010-03-07T18:38:00.005-05:00

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?

2010-02-26T22:57:00.006-05:00

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

2010-02-15T17:27:00.003-05:00

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'

2010-01-16T22:15:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-02T22:24:00.008-05:00

"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

2009-09-01T14:39:00.005-04:00

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.

*********************

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

***********************

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

Where have I been?

2009-04-19T16:28:00.001-04:00

Two weeks without a new post begs the question, especially for a brand new blog. I am sorry to say that I need to take an open-ended hiatus from my three blogs. My mother had a stroke on April 3rd, thus there has been no time to think about blogging. She is currently in a rehabilitation facility, but there are still many unknowns and many decisions to make.

I have LOVED blogging (and I was just getting started with this one!). I didn't know what to expect when I first started, but I have found that sharing my thoughts (both personal and professional) plus photos has actually brought me much happiness. So it is only because my time is needed elsewhere for the foreseeable future that I am putting all of my blogs "on hold".

Wherever you may be, enjoy the new life that comes with spring! I'll be back just as soon as I can be. :-)

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Snow in April

2009-04-06T11:51:00.003-04:00

Winter will not let go, but spring is coming, even with this recent snowfall. Other parts of the state received much more and this snow won't last long. Then onward and upward to full-scale gardening!

(Photo: Deck garden beds filled with more snow - the compost and dirt not in them yet)

(Photo: Cold frame really really cold today!)

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

Why Garden? Let me count the ways!

2009-03-27T22:41:00.003-04:00

(The beginning of my Cancer Victory Gardens)

Two "square-foot gardens" got started this afternoon for my Cancer Victory Gardens. They are 4' by 8' by 10" high and will be on our back deck where we get the most sun for the most hours of the day. Being on the deck, the soil needs to be protected from the chemically treated lumber used for the deck, so they actually have an untreated plywood "bottom".

(Dr. Dick's "Deck Beds", each is 4' x 8' x 10" deep)

What exactly is a Cancer Victory Garden? It is my personal fruit and vegetable gardens that I will fill with organically grown food to both nourish my body (and help keep me cancer-free) and nourish my soul as I enjoy the connection with the circle of life by having my hands in the soil and my face in the sun and rain. My husband and I have a perennial plot in Ann Arbor, MI with Project Grow's community gardens, and this year are taking over the few sunny spots of much more of our yard and deck than we have used in the past.

I love the play on words that 'cancer victory garden' creates, a dual effort at helping myself with the self-sufficiency of providing my own healthy food and how both the food and the gardening are keeping me both healthy and happy!

Here are some other reasons I love gardening!

• Health benefits (sunshine - vitamin D, increased serotonin)
• Nutrition (safe, healthy food, increased consumption of fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables)
• Physical activity (increased aerobic capacity, muscle strength, flexibility, and bone density)
• Environmental stewardship
• Learning opportunities for adults and children
• Participate in research (www.growinghope.net)
• Multiple-sensory experience
• Reduced food costs, increased food access and security
• Enjoy the taste of summer all year long from your own preserved food
• Enjoy dreaming about spring while planning your garden during winter's dark days
• Family & community-building
• Spiritual experience
• Psychological benefits - relaxation and “stress-buster” and solace
• Create and appreciate beauty
• Make money!
• The joy from sharing! (Food Gatherers, Plant-a-Row)
• Planning & creativity (use both right and left side of brain)
• Lasting memories
• Experience joy of nurturing, patience, slowing down
• A sense of accomplishment (improved self-esteem)
• Watching and listening to the birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators
• “Gardening is a labor of love. A treadmill is just labor.” (a quote I found on the internet)
• "Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row" (the "tag line" from my Diana Dyer blog)

My effort with my gardens and this blog is small and personal. However, I am inspired by the words and efforts of friends, colleagues, and other authors who have much bigger dreams and goals than I do:

• Joan Dye Gussow's classic book This Urban Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader (receiving a supportive email note from Joan, as a kindred spirit, after she read an article I wrote in a professional newsletter is one of my most treasured memories)

• The book entitled The Earth Knows My Name by Patricia Klindienst, is a book I expected to "breeze through" but instead read twice, word by word, cried buckets with its example after example of the beauty about the human spirit overcoming obstacles that make my own seem small, and actually found some 3x5 note cards to take notes! The most memorable line I wrote down from this book is by Masanobu Fukuoka, author of The One Straw Revolution, who said: "The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings." (Addendum: I actually read this book three times, reading it aloud to my husband on my third read. I think I need to put this book on my 'wish list'!)

• Many of my dietitian friends who are members of the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group. This quote by Angie Tagtow, MS, RD, Food & Society Fellow from Iowa, Environmental Nutrition Solutions, is particularly inspirational: "Healthy soil grows healthy food and healthy food nourishes healthy people who create healthy communities."

• Growing Hope in Ypsilanti, MI is dedicated to helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening and healthy food access. ~~Amanda Edmonds, Founder and Growing Hope's Executive Director. My dietitian book club makes a monthly donation to Growing Hope so that healthy snacks can be purchased for their after school programs.

I feel a deep connection with these visions and hope I can be an advocate and an ambassador for their goals plus in some way help people who have had a cancer diagnosis, too. Although my individual efforts are small, I hope they reap a harvest that is beyond measure, words, and my knowing.

I love the following quotation, which I also used to end my very first posting for my DianaDyer blog back in June 2007. I keep its supportive and encouraging thought always near to my heart.

"No one could make a greater mistake than he who
did nothing because he could do only a little."
~~ Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

I'll post up photos soon of the boxes (posted 3/30/09). We called them Dr. Dick's Deck Beds.

Diana Dyer

(Spring in Michigan - hopefully our last snowfall, which wasn't much and won't last long!)

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

Diana Dyer, MS, RD