Michelle Obama is making plans to start a large garden outside the White House. This organic garden will include many varieties of vegetables, herbs, and berries.
Obamas Prepare to Plant White House Vegetable Garden
WASHINGTON — On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut.
While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.
Three Questions
1) According to the article, this will be Mrs. Obama’s first vegetable garden, although she has a lot of people to help with it. How well do you think the garden will do?
2) Do you think this is a good project for the First Lady? Why or why not?
3) Have you (or someone you know) ever grown a garden, and if so, how did it turn out?
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dadshouse 03.24.09 at 10:51 am
I think it’s a great idea. Though she’ll need some help. For instance, if she plants tomatoes, she shouldn’t water them every day. You water tomatoes every three days or so. You want them water starved, so that once they finally get water, they store it like crazy - and the plant produces juicy tomatoes. Daily watering just produces shoots and leaves.
Beets rock, btw.
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Elizabeth Barrette Reply:
March 24th, 2009 at 11:27 am
That’s a good point about watering less often and more thoroughly. Little things like that are what you learn with experience, and why novice gardeners benefit from expert input. Mrs. Obama is lucky to have so much help available for her first garden!I remember reading that lots of people think they “don’t like” certain vegetables because they’ve only had supermarket ones that were canned or frozen and really not very good. If you try things fresh from a garden or a farmer’s market, sometimes they are totally different and quite wonderful!
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Ravan Asteris 03.25.09 at 12:53 pm
I found that the best way to make sure that everything was watered was to use a drip watering system. Then you don’t get water burn on the leaves and fruits. You also don’t have to keep a schedule, it’s always on at a trickle.
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Elizabeth Barrette Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
That’s a great idea! Maybe the landscapers will suggest a drip system. Those really save water. The main drawback is that you have to be more careful about digging, but the article said the White House garden will be in raised beds — people usually don’t get into those with big shovels and tillers. Beds are usually worked by hand.
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