Welcome to the BODY Community Garden Blog!

Hi everyone!  Welcome to our garden blog!

This will be a place to share garden open hours, what is growing, pictures and any other updates.

BODY is a group of medical and graduate students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine founded to address the high rates of obesity and diabetes in the Bronx by partnering students with the local community.  Specifically, we work to fight these epidemics through exercise and nutrition education programs for children and adults, and improving access to fresh, nutritious food (which is where the garden comes in!).

This year will be our second planting season and we are working with the 4th grade classes of PS89 to teach the students about gardening and fresh, healthy eating!  They are taking a field trip to the garden to help us plant our seedlings, and will hopefully be returning with their families during the summer and fall to harvest the fruits of their labor.  Last year, we were able to donate our fresh produce to families of patients at the Children's Hospital of Montefiore.

Just a quick introduction to your writers -
This is Julie (me!), a 3rd year PhD student, who is a newcomer to BODY this year.  She likes buffalo chicken, rainbows, and is really proud of her green thumb!

This is Tony, a 3rd year MD/PhD student, who was one of the founding members of BODY in 2010.  He likes soccer, trips to Home Depot, and when Julie makes pickles.

So even though it is early in the season, we already have a bunch of awesome stuff growing:

A magnolia tree that just had it's first bloom

Blueberry, blackberry and raspberry bushes in our tire planters!

Strawberry plants growing in their vertical PVC pipe gardens

Pea plants and bean plants almost big enough to reach their trellis  (they're actually even bigger than this now cause this picture is about a week old)

We also have growing:

- Grape vines

- Very, very tiny sunflower seedlings that just popped up

- Two tulip trees

- A Shiro Plum tree

We are super excited to get our veggie and herb seedlings planted with the 4th graders next week! 

We're gonna need a lot of help to plant all these seedlings!

Keep checking in throughout the season to see what else is growing, when you can come visit, and other fun updates!

If you're a fellow gardener and have any tips or tricks for us, please leave us some comments!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment, or email us at BODYCommunityGarden@gmail.com

Happy Spring!  

-Julie