The Whitehouse Grows a Garden
The South Lawn at the White House will see the greens and reds, and yellows and oranges, of the seasons soon enough! With the initiative instilled by Michelle Obama and a culinary task force interested in local food production and consumption, all of the President’s men (and women) will partake in tilling and eating their backyard, which is planning to have over 55 varieties of garden goodness. To add to this long awaited urban farm—the last one the White House saw was Mrs. Roosevelt’s Victory Garden after WWII—local school children will help plant the seeds and experience the fruits of their labors. Maybe this will further inspire and proliferate the farm-to-school movement on the east coast; good job Alice Waters!
“The Obama’s will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro, tomatilloes and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach, chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter who is a beekeeper will tend two hives for honey.”
Check out the map of the South Lawn’s planned garden, accessed on the side bar through the New York Times multimedia site. Additionally, the Daily Green has an excellent article that expounds on Michelle Obama’s goals for the White House garden, Secretary Vilsack’s plans for sustainable garden projects on USDA grounds here in DC, as well as some more history on victory gardens hosted at the White House (the first garden endeavors were taken on by John Adams).
