First Family To Plant White House Veggie Garden

What is going to be next, some chickens running around the White House????
and some clothes lines in the “back yard”????

William – LOL, exactly.
I think this is a good idea. Most of us should return to planting small household gardens for both economic and health reasons. My brother-in-law plants a wonderful vegetable garden every year. I love getting the fresh greens, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, etc.

And the first dimwit has made an appearance. Not only are home-grown fruits and vegetables healthier, more importantly they can save significant amounts of money. Yet, already there’s a post by “tutilal” insinuating that the Obama’s are “trashing up” the White House by planting a garden. This garden is a good example that more people should follow.

There are some people who were born to criticise. Whether something is good and beneficial or not, to them it means the same thing!

The staff is maintaing the garden not the Obamas

I think it’s rather amazing that White House chefs haven’t wanted to have a veggie/herb garden in the past.

Yay Eddie with the scoop! We celebrate this move by the White House and we celebrate all of you who are growing it, cooking it, brewing it, baking it, canning it, sprouting it and building it yourselves!

Maybe this will prove to a lot of the Home Owners Associations that they should allow gardens, clothes lines, awnings, solar panels, etc.
Many HOAs have become obstructionists, actually dictatorial, in their zeal to protect our neighborhoods from ourselves.

This is Great noone Gardens anymore People have Become Lazy!

Why not chickens on the White House lawn? I have chickens in my backyard and they provide me with lovely, nutrient-rich eggs every day. Hundreds of times better than factory farm eggs where they make 2 or 3 hens occupy a 12X12-inch cage. Mine feed on bugs, grass, and weeds the way they were meant to eat. I think it would set a wonderful example for the American people. This is absolutely inspiring!

“Will they be planting telepromters since O-Dumb_AH can’t speak without one LMAO
O-dumb-ah actually thanked himself after a telepromter put in the wrong speech yesterday LMAO.. WhAT a clown, the laughing stock of the world; and tonight he will be the first sitting president to lower himself to going on a comedy show.. but hey maybe thats where he belongs lmao…Obama and his cabinet of clowns.. featuring.. TURBOTAX TIMMY LMAO”
Please tell me you are not licensed to operate any heavy machinery.

Wonderful news. I guess from time to time they will tend to the veggie patch. The perfect cure for work stress and I can’t think of a more stressful job than being the President. Can’t see our Prime Minister (I’m from UK) Gordon Brown doing the same. Wish he’d follow suit and copy Obama!

Fantastic!! Enlist Alice Waters in the project. We might have a movement!!!

I think I heard somwhere that the victory gardens produced 40% of our output at one time. The agro business will not be happy :)

Apparently some of you are too good to grow your own food. Somehow it is ‘trashy’ to have chickens running around and food (the horror!) growing in your yard. DO you not eat? Do you have someone that wipes your ass for you too?? What is it that makes you too good to be connected to your own livelihood?

Well he shouldn’t trust the food supply, with so much chemicals used and the soil depleted by the farming methods used. Not that he objects – he appointed the Governor from Monsanto as his Agriculture Secretary.
Is it safe to plant food on the White House lawn? My guess is they’ve been using chemicals for decades on it. How much poison is in the soil that the plants will uptake? Will Sasha and Malia be poisoned by food from the White House garden? Stay tuned.

Why are you slamming this idea… this is great… this is not the first time the white house lawn has had a vegetable garden…the roosevelts had one during the depression and hopefully it wont be the last. This is change.

Three cheers for the Obama,s. Lead by example is what I say. Hopefully they will get their hands in the dirt rather than leaving it to staff.
When I need to escape the world’s worries I find myself in my garden. President Obama needs to be careful as I imagine some days he may not want to leave his garden.
Obviously some leaving comments here are nor gardeners,they should try it.

……and so what if he had chickens and clothes lines?!? Before we turned everything into this impersonal, plastic food eating culture we are today we surprisingly raised hens to lay eggs and roasters to eat. Before dryers we hung our clothes. There is nothing wrong with growing your own food…in fact it is completely RIGHT! We as Americans need to stop criticizing based on someone’s more simple, back to basic ideals. For those of you upset about your tax dollars going to this should really sit down and price this out. Growing your own food and maintaining a garden costs less than buying your produce at the store. I promise you, seeds don’t break the budget…..

Hey Carley, you think Obama’s going to raise his own hens? You are a buffoon.

hey kansasgirl: did carly say obama was going to? no…you are a buffoon. could he? sure, why not? he’s not going to turn into a farmer–he’s the president. but he has a lot of resources, and i’m sure that a few chickens and a gardener wouldn’t cost as much as that other pork barrel politics that go through our legislature. i love it! stupid people make my day.

Planting a garden is all well and good, but as long as people realize that victory gardens can not replace our agriculture system there is no real issue. The problem arises when sustainable foodie locavores try to warp the practicality of a personal garden into movement to denigrate food systems they do not agree with. The vast majority of the population lives in urban centers and that’s only going to increase. To think that most or even a large portion of our population can derive all their dietary needs from a home garden is asinine.

This is a great idea. Any excess can go to a foodbank. It could help to ensure those without gets fresh veggies

Historically speaking, Victory Gardens were intended to supplement rations…not be an “end all and be all.” And they were more common in urban/suburban areas because rural regions were already into agriculture.
My family is full of farmers and gardeners. They lived their lives mostly in rural areas. And I know far less than them about how to grow food, but have opted to learn now. There are a whole lot of us doing that now. And we come from across the political spectrum.
At root (pun intended because we all owe it to ourselves to be upbeat over something benign like a WH garden), the movement to home gardens has several impetuses, not the least of which is a way to ensure food security in a rocky economy. We’ve got generations of folks who owe it to themselves to learn to grow food. It’s a basic life skill…like doing the laundry.
If people who choose to have a garden–whether they tend it themselves or hire someone–opt to explore other sustainable living steps, that’s great.
Let’s sidestep the stridency on either side for once. Trust me, as much as I support organics and regard highly efforts to preserve non-GMO seeds, we’re on the edge of a potentially historic food security crisis right now that demands we look for some workable solution.
Ultimately, we need this move by the Obamas to be celebrated and used to encourage others, especially for the poorest among us who look to our nation’s leaders for guidance and role modeling.

For the record, if anyone should stop by here and is genuinely in need of strategies to grow food on the cheap, you might look at Joe Gardener’s $25 Victory Garden project:
http://budurl.com/lfdd
Other good sources include your local extension office and a variety of books at your library, including Square Foot Gardening.

Please ask the obvious question, How much? Most people who have gardens plant them and take care of them themselves; they don’t ordain them to be. I am sure that this won’t be cheap.

So when HB875 is passed is he going to till it under, for the children?

It’s good but not original. The History channel January aired a “tour of the White House”. The kitchen was tiny and the chef is growing herbs on the roof!

A nice article to be sure. It is too bad I live in the City of Atlanta, where my water bill is so high that to water a 20′ by 10′ vegetable garden cost me between $200-$300 month. Cheaper to go to the Farmer’s market by a long shot.
So until OTHER laws.. as if we need more laws.. get passed to provide affordable water right here in the good ole’ USA..
No veggies in my yard this year!
:-(
PS: I was on CBS46 twice over the past 3 years about the water bills.. along with a bunch of other citizens. It really is that bad.

I hoped when I first started reading this story that “they” were going to plant a garden. I was disapointed when I read that the Whitehouse Staff was going to do the work. Now my tax dollars are paying for a servant’s labor! It is not right.
One of the best things about a veggi garden is the work and planning that goes into it.

WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA! HOW FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY TO HAVE SOME FAMILY TIME IN THE GARDEN ONCE IN A WHILE. THE GIRLS WILL LOVE IT!

“Planting a garden is all well and good, but as long as people realize that victory gardens can not replace our agriculture system there is no real issue. The problem arises when sustainable foodie locavores try to warp the practicality of a personal garden into movement to denigrate food systems they do not agree with. The vast majority of the population lives in urban centers and that’s only going to increase. To think that most or even a large portion of our population can derive all their dietary needs from a home garden is asinine.”
I don’t think anyone has suggested that the average American can replace agri-business with the produce from a home garden. It is supplemental and a heck of a lot cheaper to grow organically at home than to buy it in a grocery store. Even the smallest yard can produce hundreds of pounds of fresh vegetables and fruit a year, a lot of which can be preserved by canning or freezing. And those who live in apartments can grow herbs or lettuce in pots on a balcony or in a sunny window. It’s just a matter of wanting badly enough to do it.
And even in NYC you can have chickens!

This is GREAT…if only people would realize that even people in the city can have gardens….on roof tops,vacant lots,on balconies in containers. You can feed a family of 4 in a 12 x 12 foot space with very little work(It’s called “Squarefoot Gardening” for anyone interested.
And it should be a place of pride…not something to be ashamed of for all those who are finding fault with it.

WOW
I can’t believe this caused such a stir. Pretty soon everyone – every single person – will have to grow their own food. Not many folks who have commented here have read the open letter from Michael Pollan to (at that time) president-elect Obama.
The “way it is” in terms of agriculture – isn’t working. Time to go backwards a bit. Maybe 60 years ago, almost everyone grew their own food. It simply was not available – the kind of stuff you can get so easily (and so underpriced, compared to the environmental cost) at the supermarket!
I think what they are doing is great.

With the way our economy’s heading, complete with the government’s increasing control over both small and large businesses, we all really DO need learn how to be self sustaining. Government control of farms is next. When will people wise up to who they put in office?

I think its a wonderful idea! At least you know what is going into your soil and on your veggies. Plant squah, watermelons, honeydew melons, dammit everything possible. At least he is doing the right thing. What are yall doing to make your enviroment and health better? Stop criticizing and get with the program and go buy some seeds and plant a garden and stop being a bunch of lazy fat heads.

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About time! How about all you city people get off your duffs and get outside and plant gardens and container gardens if you want to taste real food and not those grown by “big” agriculture. There is no reason why everyone cannot grow their own seasonal food and learn how to freeze and can with no preservatives and eat healthy instead of bad for you big business farming.
If you want to get back to the healthy way of living, learn from our ancestors and see the costs of health care and obesity go down immediately with the exercise that it takes to maintain a garden. You will have no time for tv or video games.
It gets you to have to be involved with your children and have everyone pitch in to do the daily chores.
Guess what? Weeds are actually good and provide beneficial feeding for insects, every thing has a reason for being on this earth, we are all one, nature and man. That is the way it was created. But man has to go and take control and disrupt the order it was meant to be and destroyed some very good practices that should have not been changed for the sake of time and easy meals.
Hurray for the family farm!

What about HR 875? That bill would criminalize the organic garden. If just a few organic gardens poped up in our cities and suburbs we could cut down on going to the supersized grocery stores. Victory gardens are the seeds to a stronger America. HR 875 must not pass. Monsonto execs behind it should go to jail for conspiracy and treason.

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actually it’s a brilliant idea and hope every one in USA do like what she’s doing that’s will help not only the person him self but USA economic and the global as well

Wow I bet they’d have the best looking garden in the country. That’d be an amazing place to pot around in the soil. Good on ‘em!