Mar 20, 2009 1:27pm

Getting Dirty at the White House

First Lady Michelle Obama is getting her hands dirty — and I applaud her for it. In overseeing the planting of a vegetable garden at the White House today, the First Gardener is setting an example. Like many commenters posting to the wonderfully comprehensive article on ABCNews.com, written by Kate Barrett and Brian Hartman, I don’t think she’ll be out in the garden of an evening, tilling, weeding, and composting. Nor should she — there are many other projects that need her attention. But she’s gotten the nation talking about kitchen gardens, Victory Gardens, whatever the modern-day incarnation is.

I have often marvelled at the amount of time we spend on our lawns — cutting, edging, fertilizing, seeding, weeding — endless amounts of energy for our big broad lawns, and for what? They look good, but they give nothing tangible back. You can’t eat ‘em, can’t share the bounty with your friends and family. Why not put some of that time and effort into a vegetable garden and be rewarded for your hard work? There are many who already have, as Brian Rooney showed us in his Nightline piece from February 26th in Los Angeles, and I suspect a movement will be in full bloom now.

My cousin in St Louis is helping a needy family with six children, and I just suggested to her that one of the greatest things she could do for them is help them plant a vegetable garden. Last weekend, they moved to a new rental in the city — a house with a lawn! — so how perfect would it be if they took up part of that grass and planted some of the fresh foods they otherwise could not afford? It will also teach young city kids some important lessons, not least of which is that instead of feeling helpless and hopeless, they do have control over some aspects of their lives.

So kudos to Mrs. Obama for taking the lead in this. Alice Waters has been encouraging backyard and school gardens for years… Michael Pollan has been leading the charge, and countless Americans have been quietly toiling away on their "shovel ready" projects every spring. They know the joy of picking and eating their own spinach, carrots, beets, zucchini, and yes, the ubiquitous (and fantastically flavorful) tomato. I only wish I could join them, but with no outdoor space at my apartment in New York City, I’m limited to little bits of rosemary and basil grown in pots on the kitchen windowsill. How many of you with backyards and grass and sunshine will follow the White House lead??

User Comments

We’ve got a huge outdoor garden going at the moment….and with the high cost of fresh produce…i’m hoping it does well and produces…I’ve been unemployed for months and my partner will be after next week.
Fresh produce is a whole lot better than purchased stuff…

Posted by: Phil | March 20, 2009, 1:51 pm 1:51 pm

Like would you really be critical? How stupid do you think people are, Vicki. Maybe Michelle could take a course of liking her country. Be happy when their 4 years is over..if the country can hold together from their changes. God help us.

Posted by: Joan | March 20, 2009, 1:55 pm 1:55 pm

I was already planning to pull out a few more shrubs and get some raspberries in ground this spring, so I can’t claim to be inspired. But I do appreciate the message she’s sending. Gardening is a healthy hobby with uniformly good societal benefits, so it’s hard to see how anyone can get upset about this.

Posted by: jhw539 | March 20, 2009, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm

Joan, bitter and pathetic party of one? This thread is about the White House garden, are you really that jaded that you have to post useless partisan rhetoric in a thread about vegetable gardening?

Posted by: Kevin | March 20, 2009, 2:10 pm 2:10 pm

I have been backyard gardening for years and I love it!!!!
I use those big plastic containers that you store clothes, books, etc. in them.
Last year, I grew tomatos, cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, green pepper, squash, basil, sunflowers, sage and thyme, just to name a few!!!
Kudos, to Mrs. Obama!!!!!
Everybody should plant a vegetable garden whether you live in a house or apartment!!!
It’s relaxing and fun!!!!

Posted by: sisterdearest09 | March 20, 2009, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm

Is this not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard of. Michell Obama yesterday talking about how black kids did not like her because she talked white. Why don’t she visit a white school? She is married to a multi-ethnic and I think she has a serious problem. I am with Joan God Help Us Until four years are over and we can get him out of there.

Posted by: Janice | March 20, 2009, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm

Who are you kidding, she is not making a vegetable garden. It is POT/Weed.
Once a druggie, always a dope pusher.

Posted by: MadeinUSA | March 20, 2009, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm

Joan just JEALOUS and BITTER!!!
Joan need to learn how to get close to mother nature!!!
Maybe she will feel better!!!!

Posted by: sisterdearest09 | March 20, 2009, 2:17 pm 2:17 pm

So the cartoon guy that, had watermelons growing on the lawn of the White House should not have been called a racist..Its about to become a reality..yummy… LMAO

Posted by: o-DUMB-ah and his cabinet of clowns | March 20, 2009, 2:18 pm 2:18 pm

It is really sad when not one thing a person does can please some of you. I never made wise ass remarks about Laura Bush, but then again she never did anything anyway. Honestly it would not hurt for everyone in America to plant something that would grow, besides of coarse the crude name calling smart mouth attacks.These seem to grow on trees.

Posted by: Bonnie Kimberly | March 20, 2009, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm

Janice is JEALOUS and BITTER, TOO!!!!
MadeinUSA, how would you know? Are you growing your own POT/WEED????
There are a bunch of NEGATIVE PEOPLE in this country!!!!

Posted by: sisterdearest09 | March 20, 2009, 2:28 pm 2:28 pm

o-DUMB-ah:”So the cartoon guy that, had watermelons growing on the lawn of the White House should not have been called a racist..Its about to become a reality.”
No, it’s not. They aren’t planting watermelon, and if you weren’t yucking it up to racist stereotypes there is no reason to think they’d plant watermelon in the DC climate. Herbs, berries and basic greens are the sort of thing you’d want in this type of garden I’d think – it’ll need to be a tidy, compact footprint. Watermelons make no sense at all except as a racist commentary.

Posted by: jhw539 | March 20, 2009, 2:29 pm 2:29 pm

o-DUMB-ah!!!
It’s the GREEDY white men in this country that created this financial mess!!!!!

Posted by: sisterdearest09 | March 20, 2009, 2:46 pm 2:46 pm

So, I’ve been growing veggies in with my flowers the past few years. I get beauty and food at the same time. Neighbors don’t notice – in fact they compliment me on how full and lush my garden seems to be. HA! I made 16 quarts of jelly last year from the grape vine and the strawberry plants. Froze over 40 quarts of green beans and canned another 16 quarts of peas. Not to mention all the 48 quarts of tomato-based spaghetti sauce and 12 quarts of salsa’s I canned last year. All from home-grown produce. And I live on a small lot! Talk about savings! Buying sugar in bulk helped keep the cost down a LOT!

Posted by: Kateryn | March 20, 2009, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm

We plant a vegetable garden every year. It’s wonderful to get fresh home grown vegetables. Any time someone can help themselves and maybe their neighborhood by planting fruits and vegetables — it’s a very good thing.

Posted by: afbrat59 | March 20, 2009, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm

I was thrilled today to check the mail box and find from Burpee Gardens of Warminster, Pennsylvania, my seeds. Costa Rican peppers, Poblanos, a tomato called Roma, and Okra. Later this summer these will all bend together to be enjoyed by those who have pallets that soar above bigotry. It is a delicious dish. We should all try some.

Posted by: kurt | March 20, 2009, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm

My very urban community has several neighborhood gardens AND an open-air public market that’s 100+ years old. The Community (co-op) garden is next to my own, and the City provides, as a community resource, unlimited mulch & compost from the Refuse and Parks depatments. Lots of homeowners and apartment dwellers grow their own food and flowers here. It’s a community organizing bonanza! People move here to be a part of it! No year goes by when I don’t get fruit, vegatables, and home canned delacasies from my neighbors.
The “First Gardener” and the kids make me so proud, and we’ll do well, and enjoy watching them grow their own – and grow up. My heart was truly warmed when I read about their garden.
I think that kids who don’t grow up gardening become like the out-of-place commenters we see injecting their bitterness into this otherwise useful discussion.

Posted by: Soularddave | March 20, 2009, 10:33 pm 10:33 pm

things that you grow instead of buying means more money to spend on other things, its one of a number of ways that people over this side of the pond are saving money, another way is leaving the car at home and walking short distances

Posted by: markus | March 21, 2009, 3:54 am 3:54 am

For those who have never felt the good earth between their fingers, the warmth of the sun shining on your back as you labor to grow a tomato or a flower, the result of good exercise from bending and kneeling, the taste of a fresh tomato or lettuce bunch from a garden, or exeperienced the joy of a flower blooming for the first or second or third time, you’ve missed a lot of life!Go Michele Obama…teach Joan and others like her.

Posted by: Lynn | March 21, 2009, 8:38 am 8:38 am

sisterdearest09: Unless you have been a black person who is ridiculed—yes, by blacks AND whites—for “speaking like a white person” (and not know “our place”), you couldn’t begin to understand. So don’t pretend to. It has happened to many of us all our lives (another one, white people are fond of saying: “you are not like ‘most’ black people”). We get it from both races; good for Michelle for not being afraid to call attention to it.

Posted by: Jana | March 21, 2009, 5:12 pm 5:12 pm

And by the way, great article, Vicki, and kudos to Michelle and the White House chefs for calling attention to another solution that can only help. Makes one wonder why we hadn’t gotten such solutions from previous administrations? Nothing Barack & Michelle do will be good enough for some of you, and we all know why. So odd that you are so “embarrassed” by this president, but not by the idiotic ramblings of Dubya!

Posted by: Jana | March 21, 2009, 5:15 pm 5:15 pm

Since I’m a Farmers Market Volunteer two days aweek, and a member of a Community Supported Farm I was happy to hear the W.H. now has a “1st Veggie Garden”. Even condo owners in our area use wine barrels for deck garden. Tomato’s, peppers, squash, herbs, and
beans do well as do fruit trees. Not only our health benefits from homegrown food, but it’s a better use of our decreasing resource…….WATER. Green Thums Up to Mrs. O. When will people get it that working with the earth is our roots, not our politics.

Posted by: karen | March 21, 2009, 5:44 pm 5:44 pm

Joan writes, “..a course of..” and Janice writes”..why don’t she..” Both should be thanking God that the Obamas are strong advocates of education. Maybe they can get some help over the next four years. Where do they think food comes from? Maybe they would rather eat what’s being shipped from China. If they hate the president of
America so much, why don’t they just leave for four years…and live off the land some where else.

Posted by: Ray | March 21, 2009, 6:25 pm 6:25 pm

I am just shocked that a blog post about something wonderful, positive, and healthy can elicit such vitriol and hatred from people like Joan, Janice, “Dumb…” and others above. They should be ashamed of themselves. This lack of civility must stop.

Posted by: SpinMan | March 21, 2009, 10:38 pm 10:38 pm

It is not surprising that the uneducated closet racists are unable to articulate their ramblings in the most basic sentence structure. And it should be no surprise that they have no sense of the power of the smallest examples to change people for the better. Their small minded ways, and not so subtle attacks, should not be left to fester and grow – we’ve seen the danger of this on a worldwide scale. But we should focus the majority of our energy on the positive. Kudos to the president and the first lady for doing just that.

Posted by: James | March 22, 2009, 1:17 pm 1:17 pm

How wonderful it must be to be naive and racist. You can ignore every good thing a person has done or will do because you take offense to a remark that you have taken out of context. America is a wonderful country, but our Founding Fathers tryed to kill off all Indians, kept slaves and then had the audacity to right some nonsense about “All men being created equal” while only observing Blacks as 3/5 of a person (which is about 3/4 more of a person than your average RepubliNazi).

Posted by: Lance | March 22, 2009, 11:12 pm 11:12 pm

Obama is a bad President… because he’s try to fix all the problems that the corrupt administration before him created. Why can’t racist, xenophobic RepubliMorons admit that their choices have done nothing but raise taxes (Reagan said he would lower taxes which he did his first year in office… he then raised them 7 consecutive years in a row!), create larger Government (got to build something for your cronies to reside over), erode our freedoms, increase censorship, condone torture, waste surpluses (and put us into record debt), bring 9-11 upon us and get us into immoral Oil wars to help their freinds get even richer. This Great Man and his wife are leading us into a better place… and unfortunately even you losers will benefit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: The Great Lesley | March 22, 2009, 11:22 pm 11:22 pm

All Republicans should be killed or forced to pick cotton! No wait… they should be sold into white slavery, so we can pay down the deficeit they created!

Posted by: Frank Johnson | March 22, 2009, 11:25 pm 11:25 pm

I think it’s wonderful that the First Lady is doing something productive with her time and with the White House lawn. She is setting an example for all of us! Those who made negative comments are going to find something negative in ANYTHING Mrs.Obama does. Just ignore the “meanies” and continue to applaud the First Lady AND her green thumb!

Posted by: Ros | March 24, 2009, 2:05 pm 2:05 pm

For those negative commentors who have never tasted a delicious jucy homegrown tomato, I feel sorry for them. Green thumbs up to First Lady Ms. Michelle Obama. Keep up the good work Ms. Obama!!

Posted by: Sloman | March 24, 2009, 3:02 pm 3:02 pm

Speaking of gardens. . .here is a very brief rhymne I heard many years ago:
KIND thoughts are the GARDENS
KIND words are the ROOTS
KIND deeds are the VINE-STOCKS
KIND societies are the FRUITS.
(p.s. for those of you who MIGHT be of a corrupt mind, the word “fruit” is NOT meant to represent what you MIGHT be thinking.)

Posted by: CharlesPA | March 24, 2009, 9:54 pm 9:54 pm

Jana – And by the way, great article, Vicki, and kudos to Michelle and the White House chefs for calling attention to another solution that can only help.
The issue is…while she is planting vegetables at the White House, families are losing their homes. The obamas are over rated, if they take a bus, Wow! they took a bus. Why doesn’t Mitchell go to Tent City, and tell all those families to start planting. Go to the communities struggling. It’s been 3 months of front page Media want to be a movie star, this is there chance!!! enjoy

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Posted by: charles | April 21, 2009, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm

maybe they can hire some illegals to assist in planting and harvesting.

Posted by: tom | April 23, 2009, 12:38 am 12:38 am

Michelle Obams’s are dirty in another way as well. She is imbedded on a patient dumping scheme of the very people she claims to be helping at a hospital in Chicago. The poor are by passing that hospital by as much as an hour. Where is the reporting on this? They are still getting 5 million dollars of tax payer money that is a phony scheme. Where is the reporting?

Posted by: Bebbette | July 28, 2009, 8:08 am 8:08 am

Thank you abc. Deal is dirty with the white house. If you tell on constant abuser of you and expect the police to handle it a certain situation. They probably wouldnt. I was abused by neighbor at a meeting with ex girlfriend. He abused me to get me to abuse. Girlfriend said to cause she was going to be abused. Situation back home was dad is constant abuser now taking part in lieing and scaming me. Such as huggs at church then not giving money or help change locks of keys that he had and may gave away.. GOv knows this. How does a ex murder victime get help If cult knows tactics and some guy convinces us that mobs are large that even beleive in rape tactics.We majority are ok with pacifism!!! This is a dirt deal with politicians. I have tried to go to FBI several times. Crook solider? Jerk soliders.Fight for righteousness and safetyABC women and anti rapists. i 100% dislike rapist.Thank you. psa99:9-outside pray. Gal 3:3. 1 corinth 14:26.

Posted by: andrew tuck IN | August 6, 2009, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm

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Getting Dirty at the White House

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