The rooftop garden at the University of Vermont Medical Center is an unexpected oasis on top of a concrete and steel structure. On a late September morning, within view of the hospital’s grand entrance, bees buzzed among bright-blue borage flowers and scarlet bee balm. Sunlight shone through translucent crimson Swiss chard stems. A raised bed of Savoy cabbages bloomed like giant green roses.

“I feel like a Cabbage Patch Kid is going to pop out of one,” said Lisa Hoare, the medical center’s garden educator, laughing. She had been weeding while waiting to start the final meeting of the inaugural eight-week Gardening for Health program.

A blackboard on the garden shed wall read,