Hospital garden partners with local schools

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — If you’ve visited the Cape Coral Hospital you might have noticed the garden tucked away in the Wellness Center Complex on the east side of the Sports Medicine building. The garden was created by the efforts of The American Heart Association, Lee Memorial Health System, Lee County School District, Caloosa Elementary and Middle Schools and local master gardeners.

In December, 2014 students from Caloosa Elementary and Middle schools were on hand to begin planting a variety of vegetables and herbs in the box garden situated among the many bushes, trees, and the butterfly garden.

On February 23, 2015 forty second-graders from Caloosa Elementary School visited the garden to harvest the ripe vegetables and herbs and receive additional instruction from the program coordinator Rod Barkley, a master gardener. Hospital Auxiliary Volunteers, Loretta Celestino and Dorothy Bogges, along with Janine Barnes, volunteer coordinator in Volunteer Resources at Cape Coral Hospital, were also on hand to assist the students in this learning experience.

According to Barkley, the students harvested the first small yield from the box garden, which they then delivered to the hospital’s cafeteria. If you had a meal in the cafeteria that day, you might have sampled some of the garden’s bounty of butter lettuce, kale, red romaine, green romaine, oregano and mint.