March 29, 2026 • 2:30-4:30pm Gather Vermont • 135 Main Street
Or buy tickets in-person at Gather Vermont: Wed-Sat, 11-4pm
JOIN US FOR TEA & FRIENDSHIP TO KEEP VERGENNES IN BLOOM!
Your ticket includes:
A donation to the Vergennes Partnership’s Flower Fund. This year’s priority project will be upgrading the City Hall entrance gardens.
An afternoon tea service with delicious products provided by our local sponsors listed below.
A chance to win beautiful prizes!
A special gift bag for all guests with multiple handcrafted items!
Come alone or with a friend—it is open ‘community’ seating to inspire conversation with old and new friends.
In 2025, our first CommuniTEA Fundraiser remarkably netted $1,300 for our downtown gardens!
In 2026, we’re hoping to raise even more to greatly enhance the eastern entrance into downtown. This effort will focus on a complete overhaul of the two long-neglected garden beds in front of City Hall. The project will include removing several years of accumulated mulch, installing drip lines, planting a mix of low-maintenance perennials, potentially adding retention borders, and planting annuals for immediate impact. With the Opera House's All-Access Project bringing significant improvements to the adjacent alley, it is especially important that the front of City Hall properly reflect the current character of the city. The gardens will be thoughtfully designed to complement the new landscaping planned in the alley—creating a more welcoming, beautiful gateway to the Little City and, more specifically, to one of our crown jewel buildings.
The Partnership designs, plants, and maintains numerous flower gardens and almost 50 hanging baskets and planters throughout downtown and along the Otter Creek Bridge. The map below outlines the full scope of our planting areas. The Vergennes Partnership Flower Fund covers essential expenses—planters, plants, soil, seeds, nutrients, mulch—while our volunteers contribute ALL the design expertise and labor.
Our key gardening volunteers—affectionately known as the ‘Bump Out Babes’—include Kelly Sweeney, Lisa Godfrey, Julie Basol, and Mark Basol. We hope to recruit more to join our team as the need only increases each year to keep downtown in full bloom—thereby making our downtown distinctive, beautiful, and vibrant for all!
2025 Map of Garden Areas & Example Mock-ups
Vergennes Partnership volunteer gardeners design, plant, maintain (water & weed) and prepare for winter the following throughout downtown:
18 hanging flower planters along the Otter Creek Bridge
30 hanging flower baskets along Main Street
7 bump-outs/garden areas along Main Street:
City Hall Entrance (2)
Eastern Corridor Entrance Bump-outs (2)
Linda’s Bumpout (southeastern corner of Main St & Green St)
Pollinator Garden Bumpout (southwestern corner of Main St & Green St)
Basin Block Bumpout (southwestern corner of Main St & Maple St)
5 gardens in City Park:
Corner Memorial (Main St & Green St)
Julie’s Garden (Main St & Park St)
Macdonough Memorial
Susan O’Donnell Bandstand (Park St)
Vergennes Memory Garden (Green St/Info Booth)
10 linear sidewalk gardens along Main St (south side) and Maple St (west side)
Sidewalk garden on southeast corner of Main St and Maple St