Capitol edible garden arrives with star power

The first edible garden at a state capitol went into the ground in Sacramento today, with First Lady Maria Shriver and garden guru-chef Alice Waters on hand to shovel some dirt.

The 800-square-foot garden, which replaced a flower bed in Capitol Park on the east side of the Capitol building, includes chives, thyme and basil along with beets, radishes, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and garbanzo beans. Shriver planted some parsley.

"This is something you can do at home, at school and at every state capitol," said Shriver, who admitted she does not have a green thumb. She praised the community-building benefits of working in a garden and said, "Everything you need to learn in life you can learn on the playground and in a garden."

Shriver said she wants people to learn about California agriculture through the garden and is posting on her Web site -- www.firstlady.ca.gov -- lesson plans for teachers based on gardening. She has long been an advocate for edible gardens, chairing the California School Garden Network that has doubled the number of gardens in state schools from 3,000 to 6,000 since 2004.

Shriver said she got hooked on the idea after visiting the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley. That garden, an acre of land at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, was the brainchild of Waters.

"I'm trying to bring kids into a new relationship with food through taste and pleasure," Waters told a crowd that included a large number of children at Capitol Park. The Food Network's Guy Fieri also participated.

The garden did not cost the cash-strapped state any more money. The plants and irrigation system were donated and the Department of General Services will maintain the garden as it had the flower bed before it. The food will be donated to the Sacramento Food Bank.

The Food Network's Guy Fieri talks with a student from Skycrest Elementary School, center, and Galt High School, right, at the garden.