{"id":66001,"date":"2012-09-24T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=66001"},"modified":"2012-09-24T10:08:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T14:08:49","slug":"the-garden-of-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/09\/the-garden-of-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garden of Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Some<\/a>
Some of the Husky Sports students give Dr. Bruce Gould (right) a hand harvesting the crops. (Photo provided by Bruce Gould)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Burgdorf community garden located in Hartford\u2019s North End has grown since last year \u2014 not only in the variety of produce but in the volunteers and organizations that help make the garden grow.<\/p>\n

\"Burgdorf<\/a>
Burgdorf nurses and DHHS staff help tend and organize the crops in front of the garden. (Photo provided by Bruce Gould)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The garden is located on a plot of land adjacent to the Burgdorf\/Bank of America Health Center<\/a> on the corner of Tower Avenue and Coventry Street.<\/p>\n

The Burgdorf, a community clinic that provides care for Hartford\u2019s underserved population, is a collaboration between the Health Center and Saint Francis Hospital. Its medical director is Dr. Bruce Gould, associate dean for primary care at the UConn School of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When asked about the Burgdorf Garden, Gould said that he\u2019s \u201cfinally figured out the secret to a robust garden!\u201d He shares his gardening secrets with UConn Today:<\/p>\n

Q.\u00a0 How is the garden project going this year?<\/em><\/p>\n

A. <\/strong>It’s going great. I finally figured out the secret to a robust garden \u2014 consistent water, compost, and….Miracle-Gro. We added compost when we rototilled in the spring. We watered it whenever it didn’t rain and doused it with Miracle-Gro\u00a0every two weeks all summer.<\/p>\n

Q. What did you grow? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A view of the garden with the Burgdorf Clinic in the distance (right).(Photo provided by Bruce Gould)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A. <\/strong>We planted four varieties of tomatoes, bok choy, collard greens, broccoli, green peppers, jalapenos, eggplants (both purple and white), and cabbage. We planted sunflowers and marigolds along the edge of the garden.\u00a0We also had volunteer crops (plants that we didn’t plant this year but popped up from seeds from last year\u2019s garden that overwintered). Green beans, some sunflowers and tomatoes and callaloo (a West Indian green) grew spontaneously.<\/p>\n

Q. Who is receiving this produce?<\/em><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>Our patients. We distribute our produce through WIC at the Hartford Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and through our medicine and pediatric clinics and through the emergency food bank at the Burgdorf.<\/p>\n

Q. Who else is involved?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Burgdorf<\/a>
“Fruits” of their labor. Produce is given to Burgdorf Health Center patients. (Photo provided by Bruce Gould)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A.<\/strong>It takes a village to grow a garden. The Burgdorf staff, both UConn faculty and Saint Francis staff, as well as health department employees, pitched in \u2014 planting, weeding, tying tomatoes, and harvesting. Carmen Chaparo, a manager from the DHHS helped coordinate the garden. Andy Obelnicki, a retired Saint Francis Hospital nurse, grew many of the plants in Dixie cups on his window sill then showed up one day and planted. Jodi Terranova, a UConn pediatrician, and Ana Rivera, a Saint Francis Hospital pediatric nurse aid, were weeding machines. Husky Sport Summer students toiled in the hot sun all summer tending the garden. Even some of our patients pitched in. The Knox Park Foundation rototilled the garden in the spring. The Hartford Food System and its director, Martha Page, and her master gardener serve as our guides and advisors.<\/p>\n

Q. Can anyone get involved in tending the garden?<\/em><\/p>\n

A.\u00a0<\/strong>We’re always looking for help. Anyone who likes pulling weeds or turning soil can get involved. We are planning to try to better engage the community next year.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The community garden located at the Burgdorf Health Center provides fresh produce for local patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":66005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-66001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 05:33:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66102,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66001\/revisions\/66102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/66005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66001"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=66001"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=66001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}