Michelle Obama started digging up the White House lawn today to plant an 1,100 square foot vegetable plot that will be used to grow vegetables for use in the White House kitchens.
That’s pretty admirable, and she’s hoping that it will encourage regular Americans to get on with growing their own. And why shouldn’t they? They can hardly use the ‘too busy’ excuse when even Barack will be taking a break from Middle East diplomacy and sorting out the financial crisis to do his bit. As the New York Times reports:
Almost the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, ‘whether they like it or not,’ Mrs. Obama said laughing.
The Obamas aren’t the first First Family to grow their own fruit and veg at the seat of power. Eleanor Roosevent did the same in World War II and, apparently,
The Clintons grew some vegetables in pots on the roof of the White House. But the Obamas’ garden will have 55 varieties of vegetables – from a wish list of the kitchen staff – grown from organic seedlings started at the executive mansion’s greenhouses.
The range of vegetables they’ll be growing is impressive, as you can see from this map of the plot, and includes fennel, four beds of spinach, seven beds of lettuce, and old fashioned staples like kale and peas. Notable by their absence are heavy-cropping veg such as beans, or staples like potatoes, which is a shame. There’s no mention of tomatoes, either, although they would probably be better grown in the greenhouses anyway.
Let’s hope that other world leaders follow the Obamas lead and dig out their trowels. If they did, perhaps they would realise how important it is to encourage more of us to grow food at home.
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The DC area is horrid for growing tomatoes. I agree; growing in a greenhouse would probably yield much better results!