The People’s Garden…maybe

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took a jackhammer to the concrete in front of USDA headquarters in Washington to begin construction on the inaugural People’s Garden earlier this month.

The new garden will add 612 square feet of planted space to an existing garden traditionally planted with ornamentals. The garden will showcase conservation practices that all Americans can implement in their own backyards and green spaces. As a component of the garden, pollinator-friendly plantings will not only provide important habitat for bees and butterflies, but can serve as an educational opportunity to help people understand the vital role pollinators play in our food, forage and all agriculture. The garden plot is adjacent to the site of the USDA Farmer’s Market.

According to Vilsack, the People’s Garden illustrates President Obama’s commitment to “responsible stewardship of our land, water and other natural resources, and one way of restoring the land to its natural condition is what we are doing here today”.  The garden will contain fruit trees and vegetables (although the larger project includes things like window boxes on adjacent buildings and conservation techniques), the output of which will be donated to soup kitchens in the D.C. area.  And we hear that more of these little gardens are scheduled to pop up at other USDA facilities across the country.

Michele Obama supported the initiative by dropping off a heritage breed Magnolia seedling to the ceremony, saying “I’m a big believer in community gardens, both because of their beauty and for their access to providing fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across this nation and the world.”

Apparently, none of us should get too excited, though - the pavement that was torn up by Vilsack won’t really be a garden: it’ll just be grass.  Yes, grass is better than concrete, but how about some edible landscaping?  And there are some who say this entire initiative was little more than a photo op gone horribly, horribly awry.  There’s not much of a plan for the garden: there’s no budget and the growing of any vegetables or fruit will be a volunteer gig and there’s no real plan to determine how food banks would get these theoretical vegetables.  So what’s the bottom line?  Well…a garden may or may not be planted.  That’s kind of a bummer.  To quote Fox Mulder, I want to believe.