Celebrating National Garden Month: All About The White House Kitchen Garden
Initial tilling of the soil began in March 2009. The first planting took place a few weeks
later. By June, the White House Kitchen
Garden celebrated its first harvest—which produced more than 200 pounds of
food.
The Kitchen Garden, established in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama and local elementary school students, is the first vegetable garden on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt’s World War II-era Victory Garden.
According to the New York Times, The Kitchen Garden plots are in raised beds fertilized with White House compost, crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, lime and green sand. Ladybugs and praying mantises help to naturally control harmful bugs.
As a part of her Let’s Move! initiative, the First Lady works with schools and communities across the country to develop similar locavorious gardens. As we know from Project Learning Tree's GreenWorks! grant projects, school gardens are an effective way to get youth actively engaged in healthy eating and obesity prevention.
Check out this timelapse video of the White House garden’s first growing season (timelapse begins around minute 5:40): http://www.whitehouse.gov/video/Inside-the-White-House-The-Garden.
Photo credit: White House Blog
