At Vt. Statehouse, even the thumbs go green

Signs of the times: a cash-strapped state government cutting the budget for flowers outside its Capitol, and frugal Vermonters stepping up to plant vegetables instead.


A Statehouse known for the green legislation that gets crafted inside — and for the crunchy, green ethos of many of its constituents — now sports two long, narrow plots of organic vegetables on either side of the steps leading to its front door.




"We're the only state which has a capital that doesn't have a McDonald's," said Carolyn Jones, a Montpelier sixth-grader. "We're a green state, a healthy state."


What organizers are calling the first Statehouse vegetable garden in the country got its start Thursday, as a crew of students from Montpelier High School brought 150 lettuce seedlings from the school's greenhouse to plant under the gaze of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, whose statue graces the top of the building's golden dome.

The youngsters — whose school's Web site touts a "Composter of the Month" — braved a steady rain to do the planting, while adult organizers and dignitaries huddled under a party tent nearby. Sopping wet, the teens disappeared as soon as the plants were in the ground.


"Normally, teenagers take off when there's work to do," said their teacher, Tom Sabo. "These guys split when the work was done."

A volunteer group that's dubbed itself the APPLE Corps — that's Association for the Planting of Edible Public Landscapes for Everyone — also planted chives, parsley, red cabbage, early bush peas, carrots, scallions and others.


The harvest will be donated to the Montpelier Food Pantry, which distributes food to the poor.


The garden plots curve slightly — a bit like a mustache — just below symmetrical rows of spirea bushes on the small hill that climbs toward the building. In past years, they've been flower beds, with profusions of tulips in spring and mums in fall, as the strips of garden along the walkway below will continue to be.


Statehouse curator David Schutz said with a 20 percent cut in the flower budget, it would have been hard to plant the rows below the spireas. "Their timing was excellent," Schutz said of the vegetable volunteers.


But Schutz, a fastidious fellow who has made a career out of restoring the 150-year-old Statehouse to its mid-19th-century splendor, said the garden project will have to remain unusually symmetrical for a vegetable garden.


"This is about as formal as it gets in Vermont," he said of the grand approach to the Statehouse. "When you take out a carrot on this side, you may also have to take out a carrot on the other side."


Organizers pointed to the Obamas' new vegetable garden at the White House and growing numbers of families, strapped by the economic downturn, turning to backyard gardens for some of their food, as evidence of a cultural shift.


APPLE Corps member Caroline Abels said the Statehouse vegetable garden "is meant to give folks an extra boost of inspiration — and some basic information — to get them started on growing their own gardens at home."