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TechnoratiWhy the White House Garden Matters
Has one vegetable garden ever generated so much excitement or debate? A few details about the new White House vegetable garden caught my attention.
It is 1,100 square feet. This is a garden sized for a family. In my experience of removing front lawns and planting Edible Estate prototype gardens across the country, the Obama garden is about the size of the average American front lawn. Most Americans should be able to imagine themselves planting something about this size in front of their house over a weekend with the help of some friends and neighbours.
Of course I would have preferred that they remove the entire South Lawn of the White House. I imagine a combination of fruit tree orchards, wild berry patches and edible flower and grass meadows. But since this new first family garden should be a model to inspire every American family, perhaps a modest 1,100 square feet is the best way to start the revolution.
There will be tomatillos and cilantro, but no beets. The Obamas love Mexican food, and Barack does not like beets. This is a garden planted for the personal tastes of the family that will be eating from it. It is not just a pretty garden, or an empty symbol, but a place for a family to grow the food that they like to eat, on the land that is around them.
They have selected 55 varieties of vegetables and herbs according to their tastes, and every American family can inspect that list and imagine what they would plant instead. Where are the tomatoes? Why so much spinach? Can I grow blueberries where I live? The lawns surrounding our homes are all the same, in denial of our diverse climates and cultures. Neighbourhood streets lined with edible gardens like the Obamas' would all be different, celebrating our diverse tastes.
It will be visible from E Street. Will tourists linger at the South Lawn fence hoping to catch a glimpse of Sasha and Malia weeding? We will all be able to watch it grow through the seasons and evolve over the years. This is a vegetable and herb garden in front of the house, and meant to be seen.
Since the late 1940s the sterile industrial landscape of the lawn has come to dominate our streets. This divisive and repressive aesthetic has been sold to us as the only acceptable surface to present to our neighbours. But our ideas of beauty are always shifting, and soon the front lawn will be considered an ugly vestige of an ignorant time. Why did they water, weed, mow, fertilise and pollute for a ceremonial space they never even used? With the Obamas giving us an organic vegetable garden to look at, we are taking steps toward a more thoughtful, beautiful, healthy and productive landscape.
Fifth-graders from Bancroft Elementary School helped plant it. Many American children today do not see evidence that food comes out of the ground or experience the pleasure of eating food fresh from plants. Instead their diet is causing epidemic childhood illness. The introduction of a food-producing garden into their early lives is our best hope for changing the situation in a meaningful way.
In my on-the-street garden-planting experiences from Austin to London, it is always the children who are the first ones on the scene, and the most excited to help out. They tend to be the least sceptical, and the most hopeful about the future prospects for the garden. We should have a garden like the Obamas' everywhere there are children.
A beekeeper will tend two hives for honey, and ladybugs and praying mantises will help control harmful bugs. Fully sanctioned and welcome critters at the White House! I think this is perhaps more exciting than the garden itself.
We know that the lawn is essentially ecological genocide. Everything but those precious blades of grass must die in the name of that luxurious green carpet. Pesticides indiscriminately decimate the bugs that are pests, and any other form of life that gets in the way.
An organic garden is not an island, even if it is surrounded by a lawn. It is encouraging to see this acknowledged with the welcoming of these partner animals that will make pollination, pest control and the production of food possible without chemicals.
Planting beds will be fertilised with White House compost and crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay. I love local details. That's what make gardens special, and lawns boring. So the thought of crab meal from the local bay coming to the South Lawn is a thrilling development.
The rest of us can read about that and ask what local resource we could tap into to feed our garden. Seaweed from the coast? Manure from the farm? And what about the first family compost pile? We need to see images of that, and find out where it will be located.
I would advocate for a very visible and privileged location, perhaps at the ceremonial south entrance to the White House, where Barack can show off the rich pile of decomposing banana peals and coffee grinds to visiting heads of state.
As any gardener knows, the compost pile is the engine of the garden, the place where yesterdays "waste" becomes tomorrows fertility. What better message for us today?
The total cost is $200. They could have planted a very elaborate and expensive garden that might have been more worthy of what we would expect in front of the White House, but I am so pleased that they planted something modest and cheap. Sales of vegetable plants and seeds are soaring along with the cost of food. Americans are rediscovering the economic benefits and perhaps even the daily pleasure of being outside and growing food where they live.
Of course there are probably some buried expenses not included in the $200 price tag, and some people will argue that you need to spend a small fortune and most of your time on such a garden. But an important message has been sent: Here is something anyone should be able to afford to do at home.
Is this too much hyperbole for one little garden? Am I placing too much significance on such a simple act? In the face of trillion-dollar deficits and billion-dollar bailouts, perhaps it is exactly the modesty of the gesture that makes this message so welcome right now.
36 Comments so far
Show AllI just learned this year after 20 plus years of gardening that you can save seeds for up to 20 years by freezing them! I never need all the seeds in a packet and I give them to others but if not-- now I will freeze them!
Why can't you just enjoy the idea of somebody deciding to have his/her own vegetable garden in the yard? Why do you have to immediately become "brainy" about it, refering to things which have nothing to do with it? I sincerely feel compassion towards Obama, trying to set a new way of seeing things in a country so full of witty people who, at the time of taking actions against wars, Wall Street monsters, greed, accumulation of capital and weapons, contempt for the rest of the world, have not shown any fervor and have allowed previous governments to show arrogance, violence and contempt for others in your name. I wish Obama all the best.
I wish him all the best, too, but he apparently doesn't feel the same for us. While he seems to like a good substanceless symbol, too many of his appointments (agricultural, financial, security, military and others) are corporate flunkies, and he (and his party, apparently) has nothing against helping agribusinesses root out the last of the small farmers and homesteaders while he and they make every realm of government a war on something alive. I think you are mistaken about him doing or trying anything new. He is better than most on climate policy--while still inadequate and bound for armaggedon, but in almost every other area he is in thrall to the corporations who paid to get him elected. Not just HR 875 but 814 and 759 are a trio of bad to terrible bills which collectively will decimate organics and small farmers in the US. But what is that stacked up against a nice garden and some neat phrases?
How about a homeless camp on the West Lawn?
This is beautiful. A step in the right direction. GObama!
Hey, news flash, $200.00 spent on a garden is not cheap! My veg garden is a little over six hundred square feet and I spend zero planting it. Here's how it's done. Spread your compost into the garden each year and eventually your soil will be organically rich. Plant only organic (non-hybrid) seeds because they can be saved each year for next years planting. Plant a Native American style garden known as the three sisters, corn, squash, and beans. These three things have all the nutrients that human's need to live a healthy life. Then if you want to add some tomato plants, great. Beyond that you will have to educate yourself because many plant varieties cross pollinate. You want to avoid that so that your seeds remain as pure as possible. Do some reading and learn the best way to save your seeds for next year. Then do it all over again for free.
Also, welcome your local animals to your garden by planting enough for you and them. Put a bird feeder near your garden and the birds will pick the bugs off of your plants. There are many more natural methods to keep the bugs at bay.
Catch water in a rain barrel for use on your garden. There are toxins on your roof so place a filter on the rain barrel spigot. Bury a tin can 1/2 into the ground next to each plant. Put three small holes in the bottom of each can. Fill the cans up regularly with clean rain barrel water. The cans will slowly water the ground next to your plants. All free so far!!!
If you want to retain more moisture in the ground, place a white stone next to each plant. The white stone will reflect heat and keep moisture under the stone.
If you don't like pulling weeds than after the plants get six or eight inches high, spread six inches of straw over your entire garden, leaving openings only for your plant and tin cans. The straw will completely tamp down your weed and grass problem. I pay nothing for straw but it may cost you about four dollars a bale. Some people use alfalfa instead because alfalfa can then be tilled into the soil in the fall and is good fertilizer.
Do not use commercial fertilizer on your garden because it eliminates selinium. Garden organically.
Stone writes; “Also, welcome your local animals to your garden by planting enough for you and them. Put a bird feeder near your garden and the birds will pick the bugs off of your plants. There are many more natural methods to keep the bugs at bay.”
I’ve seen as many as 20 whitetail deer in my yard at one time, there are so many raccoons they will eat every ear of sweet corn even if I plant 4 rows 40 feet long. I’ve built an electric fence 7 feet tall to keep the deer out of my garden but the raccoons, rabbits and other small critters can still get in. Last year in one night they got my entire green bean crop, nibbling the plants off at ground level when they were six inches tall, this year I’ll have to put up chicken wire around my beans.
I have excellent luck with tomatoes, squash, potatoes, bell peppers (maybe I should plant some hot peppers as critter weapons?) radishes and lettuce (my soil is high in sulfur, I planted a blend with arugula lettuce and not even the rabbits would eat the arugula, tried onions one year and they were weapons grade onions, you could not even handle them.)
Peace now!
Raccoons don't like zuccini (the leaves scratch their little noses, or something) so it helps to put zuccini around anything especially scrumtious. Same for cucs and pumpkins. Otherwise, chicken wire works.
Yah I've had years like that too. When you have too many critters to handle a fence is a good idea. If you want to share with the animals then just leave some outside the fence for them. Also, I have a small plot of land, 35 acres, near Lake of the Ozarks that I plant as well. I plant a few acres there too and grow hay on the rest. I get about forty large round bails of hay that sell for sixty dollars a bail. It pays the tax and turkey doo for next year, with some left to improve the land each year. I have been thinking of turning the hay land into indigenous prairie. I anticipate using some of my hay profits each year to plant the prairie until it is all in prairie except for my my few acres of garden. I would like to acquire another small piece of land nearby to plant winter oats for the deer. All in good time I guess.
Great posting Stone, I'm going to take your advice once I have some land to sow! I live in CA, where pretty much anything grows. It sounds like you're pretty knowledgable about home gardening and self-sufficiency. Have you grown your own garden yet and if so, how is it working out?
Cheers
I grow a garden every year and save my seeds for the next year. Just remember not to use hybrid seeds of you want to save your seeds. I like to grow Cherokee Blue Corn because of it's high nutrition value. It is a Dent corn (feed corn) but if you pick it in the milky stage it is good eating. In order to save seed you must leave it on the stalk until it hardens. I usually cut the stalk when it turns brown and stack it around a tree until January. Then I harvest the seed.
I use the old Cherokee green bean. It is short and has strings on both sides so it takes some work. I like them for the tradition and the eating. The bean seeds are sometimes hard to find to get started.
I plant a Seminole Squash. It is very drought resistant and produces a good crop.
I like the Cherokee Purple tomato. It is a sweet tomato and has a purplish red color.
There is normally a good selection of seeds at www.seedsaversexchange.com among other places. You do not have to use the old Native varieties, there are many good choices for corn, beans, and squash.
Good luck.
Sorry, I now notice that you mentioned that you have a 600 Sq ft garden... Foot in mouth again!
Hey, this garden is really going to grow, too! I mean with all that bullshit that Obama will be using in it for fertilizer!
Spoken by one of the "No" party people---I like you though--just something else our President has to listen to and work to get rid of---this is called change asked for by the majority of voters
New initiatives in an old worn out game of triangulation. The oppressed should applaud the oppressor? An axe murderer can grow a garden. Should the axe murder be forgiven?
One of the key principles of progressivism is holism. A holistic policy, ideally for individuals but crucially for public institutions is required. The hippocratic oath is an implementation of holism. We the progressives will not compromise with these triangulating Demoks. The trianguators must compromise, give up their collusion with criminals, prosecute the criminals, and accept universal equity.
I guess that's freedom of speech, or something about????
Calm down bro, the piece is about the ecological benefits of home gardening, and how the Obama's agree with that philosophy. That's it. How is your reference to axe murderers even remotely relevant? Why don't you go home and grow some ganja in your garden? Sounds like you seriously need it!
Meanwhile, HR 875, which would virtually criminalize a home vegetable garden, plows stealthily through Congress. What would be good is if the White House garden brought attention to this latest "gift" from Agri-business.
Yes - I already emailed information on this bill to all my friends - progressives and those who just like to grow a good tomato.
Joe
NateW, You are correct - so encourage everyone you know to take the following action. Here's an excerpt from healthfreedomUSA[dot]org: "President Obama and his First Lady, Michelle Obama, have begun planting an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn. This, at least for this one time, is immensely important to us. Even while the Congress is preparing to pass HR 875 and S 425, disastrous legislation which will plunder the ability of small farmers to stay in the game, leaving ALL food production to the industrialized food chain forces, including GMO and nutrient poor, chemical rich, irradiated food producers, the thrust for clean food production through organic small gardens has been put into our hands by this disingenuous move on the part of the public face of control, the While House. So let’s use this initiative for all that it is worth and create V2-Gardens. And, while we are talking about it, please visit http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714 RIGHT NOW, while you are thinking about it, to tell Congress not to pass these horrific bills. I hope you’ll take a moment, too, when you have finished reading this article, to send everyone on your contact list the link I just gave you so that they, too, can help defend their right to clean, unadulterated food and the right to grow it."
Visit the link to take action against HR 875 and SB 425 TODAY. Time's a-wasting.
I like this garden idea. It is normal and healthful.
I hope the Michelle Obama will influence her husband to oppose attempts by Monsanto, Cargill et al to squelch local gardens, food stands and farmers' markets. I hope they will follow through on strengthening food inspection so we do not have to be afraid of our food. I hope they will give some small economic and technical support to allow local farms to compete with agribusiness. I hope that the image police in housing complexes will get over the velvet green lawn thing and lift bans on vegetable gardening in yards. I hope that city parks will test the soil for lead and other pollutants and then allocate space for community gardens. I hope more children will experience biting into a sun-warmed tomato from the vine or blackberries picked one by one from a hedge in August rather than fried whatnots from the store.
In short, I hope that growing food escapes from the corporatization that has grown to dominate every aspect of our life.
Joe
Beautifully said, Joe. My sentiments exactly. T/Y.
Thanks Fritz for a good positive article--Thanks Joe for your comment as I agree with your view---I also want to say this garden is not only a food supply, but it is education for the Obama girls and some classmates.. Keep up the good work Michelle. show us all what Family Leadership is. Rich
Sounds like this author's fallen victim to the simplicity of this PR stunt...of course if the man INSIDE the house continues to support agribusiness over organic and sustainable agriculture then there's clearly a contradiction.
Oh, and nevermind the hundreds of gallons of water per day wasted on the REST of the white house lawns and gardens...so much for a message of ecological sustainability, as we know already "that the lawn is essentially ecological genocide".
ugh. We need to stop fawning about superficial measures like these and start collectively raising our voices to criticise what's going on with the guy INSIDE the white house, for crying out loud.
Part of the "No Party" people talking negative, because they don't want positive..Take some time and grow you a garden
Oregoncharles
It lets off a little steam, doesn't it? And distracts progressives from Obama's pick for Secretary of Agriculture. ugh!
Remember the "Tale of two houses" that Snopes researched? Turns out that Al Gore has several homes that are the opposite of Green - wasteful, behemouth, palacial - while GW Bush's house in Tx is a model of sustainabilty, geothermal, cisterns, solar panels, gardens, etc. I never once heard a progressive applaud Bush for this.
Obama's people plant a garden: Photo op time! "hmmm. what little bone can we offer to the nice progressives who gave up their free voice for us?"
No one thinks this garden is a bad idea. But let's not lose perspective.
You failed to mention that Gore's older homes are not green because green technology wasn't available then---GW's house is "Brand New"... Another "No Party" view. Tell your leader Rush about this garden is a sure thing to hush the majority. Obama's people didn't plant it the School children did and got a little agriculture knowledge while enjoying it.
Perhaps sanity will rear its head soon and homes will be built closer to the street, allowing for more back yard space where a garden can be a part of the landscaping for the family to enjoy.
There'll always be the one in the crowd that decides for all the others that front yard gardens, just like the back yard clothes lines - and women's breasts, are degrading, obscene, or in some way negative and should not be allowed.
My worm bin on the terrace was not too popular with some friends! But I thought it was a little bit of miraculous.
Joe
"There'll always be the one in the crowd that decides for all the others that front yard gardens, just like the back yard clothes lines - and women's breasts, are degrading, obscene, or in some way negative and should not be allowed."
I share your frustration wilmoor. I would only add that in our 'polite society' we abandoned the compost pile about the time when the backyard privy disappeared. In my village of six thousand residents I have not seen a compost pile in thirty years. My ten foot pile is part of a backyard habitat that supports a cycle of flora and fauna. This teaching moment should advocate for the the return to our venerable compost that also provides shelter for birds and mamals in winter.
Thanks Obamas for a great start to our return to sanity!
Well for where I live it would have to be a rear garden, the rear of the house I live in faces the sun...but it's really messy, and half of it is taken up by a concrete parking spot. I think I might be better off just with some herbs in boxes.
Peace now!
You can plant on top of concrete in old crates, old tires, plastic buckets, half wine barrels, anything you can stick dirt in. They make grow bags, that are really cheap that you can fill with dirt. You can also just buy a bag of soil, and plant right in it. (Make holes for drainage, though.) You can stack wooden containersd right on top of the concrete. Concrete keeps gophers out. I live in the country, but we have voracious gophers, so we have to plant above ground in raised beds. Don't give up your dream just 'cause of some concrete.
Well, there is occasionally a car parked there too unfortunately :-)
cars make good planters too. convertibles are easiest but anything will do.
or a car