Dr. Cornelius Flowers & Stanley Baker | Emory Hillandale Community Garden & Orchard

Dr. Cornelius Flowers & Stanley Baker

Emory Hillandale Community Garden & Orchard

Lithonia, DeKalb County

In 2023, Dr. Cornelius Flowers was offered a seedling by a physical therapist at Emory Hillandale Hospital. That simple exchange turned into conversations about gardening, health, and the power of having green space for patients. With support from other hospital employees, including Stanley Baker, those conversations grew into a garden designed for patients and staff to enjoy.

The space now includes raised, ADA-accessible garden beds and a newly planted orchard. And fittingly enough, with a name like Flowers, Dr. Flowers feels right at home among the plants. Both Dr. Flowers and Stanley volunteer their own time to care for the garden.

Today, it has become a welcoming place for patients, staff, and visitors to slow down and spend time outside. While it doesn’t operate like a traditional community garden with individual plots, everything grown here is shared. “Community is in the name, because we want to involve the whole community. Food is medicine,” said Dr. Flowers.

For Dr. Flowers and Stanley, the garden serves many purposes: a place to connect with nature, support physical and mental healing, learn about healthy eating, and make fresh food more accessible in the surrounding community. That’s why, when they learned about the Orchard Project from Food Well, it felt like a natural fit.

This spring, Food Well helped plant blackberries, blueberries, plums, pears, and pawpaws in the garden. “We had about 30 people including children come and help us plant the trees,” said Stanley. “It’s great because they got to understand a little more about gardening.”

Eventually, they’d like to host classes in the garden that teach people how to grow their own food and use the fruits and vegetables harvested there to prepare healthy meals.

“This is how we develop our community, by donating and giving back,” said Dr. Flowers when asked about the importance of supporting organizations like Food Well. For the volunteers who care for the Emory Hillandale Community Garden, spaces like this show what’s possible when people come together to learn, grow, and give back.