Capitol Vegetable Garden
Since 2010, Rooted and its partners have managed a vegetable garden at the east corner of the Capitol Square. With this small, 450-square-foot garden, we demonstrate to visitors from across the state the beauty and diversity of food grown by Madison gardeners.
Who plants the Capitol Vegetable Garden?
The Capitol Vegetable Garden was first planted in 2010 by Madison FarmWorks, a Rooted-based project promoting home gardening. Since then, Rooted has been responsible for the garden’s care and maintenance, though the labor to plan and maintain the space has been shared with organizations across Madison. The 2026 garden is planted and maintained as a collaborative effort of Urban Triage, TradeRoots, and Rooted. You can learn more about Urban Triage and TradeRoots below.
What is growing in the garden?
The focus of this year’s garden is herbs. When you’re visiting the garden, you’ll see a variety of culinary and medicinal herbs from around the world that can be grown here in Madison. There are patches of parsley, oregano, basil, and cilantro from eastern Eurasia. From America, we have planted marigold, huacatay, culantro, and pápalo/quilquiña. We’ve planted Nkaj Liab, Tshuaj rog/Okinawa spinach, Ntiv, and Pawj Qaib, herbs traditionally used in HMong chicken soup. You will also find celosia, a flowering leafy green from East Africa, as well as collards and mustard greens filling in spaces between the herbs. Though most of the plants are used for eating, you will also find plants used for tea – lemongrass, lemon balm, tulsi basil from India, and jamaica/hibiscus/sorrell. Rub a few leaves when you’re passing by to smell all the different varieties of flavors!
The herbs in this year’s garden are just a small selection of what is grown by gardeners and farmers in Dane County. We hope they inspire you to try your hand at growing a new vegetable or herb in your garden!
What happens to the food grown in the Capitol Vegetable Garden?
The Capitol Vegetable Garden is intended to be an educational, demonstration garden. Of course, we know that visitors may grab some greens or a pepper to snack on, but the majority of the harvest will be donated to food pantries and free food programs around town.
2025 Garden map
