As Hippocrates said, let food be your medicine. That’s the idea behind a new movement that’s stressing the ‘farm’ in ‘pharmacy:’
A pretty white picket fence surrounds a garden of about a half-acre in what used to be a parking lot in Christiansburg.
Kelli Scott is an agricultural and natural resources agent with Montgomery County Cooperative Extension.
"We actually have some watermelon and Okra blooming you know those are like traditionally really hot weather plants."
The Christiansburg Community garden is immaculately kept, with neat raised beds and seeming complete lack of weeks, even in the lazy days of late summer.
“We do have a bed of spinach that went all last winter so we’re really proud of that.”
It’s because this is a community effort. Master Gardeners and locals residents and other volunteers come here to help plant, weed and harvest. And the opportunity to learn how to incorporate the fresh vegetable they can get here, into their diets.
“So it maybe things that folks aren’t used to using, show them a salad recipe or cooked preparation.”
It’s part of a growing movement that’s putting these gardens at the center of community health. It’s to the point where doctors are actually prescribing fruits and vegetables. Patients at the Community Health Center in Christiansburg can take that piece of paper out back to the garden and fill a bag with what the doctor ordered.
“Doctors see the value in consuming more fruits and vegetables but then they also see the physical benefit of getting out there and moving and working. So we’ve been teaming up with these doctors at these clinics and we actually have a prescription pad where are writing prescriptions for those that are pre diabetic or have obesity issues, most often preventative type of prescriptions
The Community Garden in Christiansburg and one like it in Floyd are grant funded and supported by the New River Valley Health District, Virginia Tech and the Cooperative Extension’s Virginia Family Health Program but the support doesn’t stop there. The local high school offered heated indoor space for the gardeners to start seeds in spring, giving it a leg up on early planting. There’s no water on site at this garden that sits on land donated by Montgomery County
“We actually have the local fire department come and fill it up for us with their fire truck, so yet another community involvement into this garden.”
The garden manager has a sign up sheet for people who can offer their time to come by and help out. They give their labor to grow this garden and scientists today tell us that spending time like this in nature pays them back in other ways.. You’ve heard of sun bathing, even forest bathing for promoting emotional well-being. You can add ‘garden’ bathing to that pharmacopeia.
“So all those eyes and hands and loving energy towards the garden, you can see it and you can feel it.”
In this, its second year, garden’s managers are collecting data on fruit and vegetable consumption that they will present to other agencies across the state as the seeds for similar collaborations to grow all over Virginia.
