The publicity surrounding the White House garden just hit The New York Times yesterday, and is spreading like wildfire among avid vegetable gardeners. We took a peak at the layout as spec’d by Assistant White House Chef, Sam Kass.
To figure out exactly what he had in mind, we recreated the White House vegetable garden layout on Plangarden (click on image):
Check out Plangarden layout of proposed White House veggie garden!
It’s fabulous to see that the beds will have good companion flowers like marigolds and nasturtiums to attract beneficial insect and pollinators. The choice of crops appears to be weighted to those plants most likely to succeed, esp. in the hands of school children who are going to be involved in planting and maintaining it. However,
- There’s way too much spinach! How about some easy-to-grow bok choi? And once July comes around, the four beds of spinach will have to be replaced by something, hopefully a light-feeding, heat-tolerant veggie. Perhaps a late harvest heirloom tomato.
- Speaking of which … where are the TOMATOES? What about potatoes? Bush
and pole beans? Cucumbers? Bell peppers? Green onions? Corn? Gosh, these are no-brainer, sure success veggies. Malia and Sasha are sure to enjoy cherry tomatoes through the early autumn. - With all that nitrogen-hungry spinach, crop rotation has got to be in the plan as well. We suggest that at least two different plans are created: one for early, and one for mid-season. The First Family is sure to enjoy garlic in their meals, so that’s a good one to plant in October.
- We seem to be missing items mentioned in the NYTimes article like the tomatillos, hot peppers and basil. An oversight, perhaps.
So what do you think about Sam Kass’ proposed layout?
I think you are spot-on about the plants most likely to succeed. It is the first planting, but more importantly there will be a much higher level of scrutiny on the success of the crops at the White House garden. If you or I have a crop or two fail, no big deal, but if the White House can’t succeed organically, there is no doubt agribusiness will happily point that out.
THe layout is good. Your plan is better. They had better pot up that mint or it will be everywhere…. Like you say, where are the spuds? The celery? Corn–USDA down the block might not want that issue raised….? The carrots also see to get short shrift, stuck away with the herbs. They could be interplanted with the onions…
The garden plan so far doesn’t have much height or structure. It needs indeterminate toms, pole beans, climbing peas to shade mid-summer crops…especially if they don’t want all that spinach to bolt.
Where are the winter squashes? The cabbages? Sam Kass must be playing it very safe. No seasonality or fresh, spontaneity in this garden menu…
These are, of course, going to be OP Heirloom varieties, right? Ones that can’t just be found downtown….
Anthony, I recall when we had our first garden at our present home. Warned Roy not to plant too many varieties. And guess what? We had broccoli growing out of our ears, the same way poor Malia and Sasha may be subjected to spinach.
Let’s hope for their sake that this IS preliminary. Also, having too much of one variety may exacerbate a very bad pest situation, so Sam should not be too cautious in adding more, different veggies and fruits like cantaloupe that will thrive in hot, muggy DC this summer.
Thanks, Podchef. Seems to me the White House can certainly use quite a bit of your expertise. LOL on that mint
Was just commenting to Anthony about the risks of planting too much of the same thing from the pest perspective. Not a good idea, esp. if you’re going organic.
It is preliminary. I am sure they are planning to be able to have a healthy harvest by June, then there will be replanting and rotation. There will probably also be some cooperation with the USDA on extending the growing season without resorting to biotechnologies, synthetic chemicals, etc- http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/ag_systems/sri/sustain_ag_sri_sare_tunnels.html
Yup. We’ve used lacewings successfully to control aphids … why can’t they? More importantly, touching, looking under the leaves of your plants is a must-do for organic gardeners, and critical to managing pests.
BTW have you seen the USDA People’s Gardens post? Sounds too good to be true!
I am THRILLED that the WH “Victory Garden” will be organic! Your suggested changes are right on target. But I suspect the corn and tomato lobby refused to participate unless their part of the garden was heavily subsidized. Spinach lobby, OTOH, was so thrilled to be invited to the table they acquiesced (sp) to every contingent, thereby securing a large and favorable position in the plan.
That’s my theory, anyways.
Do we really need a lobbyist to get a schoolkid to plant a corn seed in a garden? It may only be a DREAM, but I sincerely hope that this garden will be inviolated by DC politics!
[...] a very cool planning tool’s site has created a version of the garden plan for manipulation. Thanks to the Podchef for tweeting my attention to it. Check it out… very [...]
I, too, was wondering about the tomatoes and beans and such, and then read the white house version of the garden map image; it says clearly “spring garden” on the left. and one of the stories I read mentioned they’re growing seedlings in the White House greenhouse; so I’m thinking those tomatoes and celery are already going like crazy. Sam Kass is thinking this through more than you think, I bet
and when I saw the rhubarb, I thought they should start asparagus, too; might as well plan for eight years!
Clearly this is just the early spring garden! It’s only March!! It’s too early to plant tomatoes, peppers, basil, corn, beans, etc, even in D.C. When the weather warms up, they will no doubt replace some of that cool-season spinach with hot-weather- loving crops.
Sarah & Min, good eye there. We’ll re-label the Obama garden as the spring garden. I’d probably put the kale in as more of a late season planting (actually tastes better when hit with frost in Oct/Nov) but Chef Kass seems to like the leafy stuff. Personally, I’d replace at least one of the spinach beds with bok choi w/c likes cool weather. But does the WH really care about our opinion?!?!!
You know I was joking about the lobbyist thing, right?
We certainly hope you were!
Really suprised to see Ms Obama start an old-school garden that wastes water, offers poor yields, promotes topsoil erosion, and reduces oxygen producing grass.
Its a shame that they didn’t read on modern gardening and install a nice square-foot garden. A square-foot garden uses 20% of the space and 10% of the water of a traditional garden, but with 100% of the yield. Not to mention they look far nicer.
Its much easier to convince Americans to install a 3- or 4-foot box of food than the monstrosity they’re building in the South Lawn. Especially since theres no digging or tilling involved.
Also, the WH garden is not organic as it doen’t meet federal standards for organic. Use of the the term organic by the WH is likely a violation of federal law.
http://tinyurl.com/organic-law
Hi Timothy, your comments made us grin
You certainly have a point re. the merits of SFG. For now however, I’d give the First Lady a break since this is, after all, her very first garden. Her objective of setting this garden as a paradigm to get families, esp. young children, into growing their own food and eating healthily, AND donating some of the surplus to the local food bank is admirable. The fact that they’ve even started this project is amazing! With more input from gardeners like yourself, the techniques can evolve and become even better. So don’t hesitate to send your suggestions directly to Sam Kass.
Also, one does not have to meet the organic certification levels that you linked to unless you’re actually selling the produce as an organic produce supplier. We grow our produce organically and we can “say” it’s organic. We’re just not certified to sell it organic.
[...] Plangarden blog visitors have commented favorably on the White House garden: plangarden.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/your-take-on-the-obama-vegetable-garden/. Some have suggested establishing a square foot gardening system which conserves water and space, [...]
Well I sure wish they would publish the other layouts for summer and late season crops. That way foodies and gardeners can see what is going on without picking on the Obama’s too much.
I don’t understand the press, only publishing that first layout, but yet in articles mentioning vegetables that cannot be seen in the plans.
They can grow a lot more than I can here in our cold Zone 4. The snow has not even melted yet! Perhaps I’m just “green” with envy!
They really should grow some pumpkins for the girls.
And where are the other photos showing progress? I’d like to see how they are building that garden and not really interested in an “after” shot.
Ceara08, I have a feeling Chef Kass has got his work cut out for him! No doubt, there will be “gardening pains” as this project gets underway (and yes, we contacted Sam Kass about using Plangarden; still awaiting response
). Hopefully there will be adults as well as school children who will volunteer to maintain it. Planning and maintaining 1,100 sqft garden is a LOT of work!
As for photos, I’m sure the press and their zoom cameras will document the progress on the south lawn, er, garden.
Take heart, it is spring, and soon you’ll be getting those seedlings in the soil!
[...] here’s where the citizens of our nation critique and criticize the layout of the garden. It is the People’s Garden, after [...]
I think that everyone has their own idea of how and what they want their garden to be. If Mrs. Obama wants 8 beds of spinach, who cares. It takes a lot of leaf spinach to make a small batch of cooked spinach. Plant your own garden your own way and leave her garden alone. I think some people just want to find something to critisize.
I think a lot of people didn’t realize that this was only a spring garden (ourselves included). Once you realize that this is only the spring garden and that spinach will be harvested and out of there in time for the summer garden it does make MUCH MORE SENSE.
Everyone likes to give their criticisms, and I think it is OK.
Just to show I am willing to accept criticism, here is my garden and you can comment on all you think I do wrong.
Plangarden’s Garden
BTW, I have had trouble with spinach in my garden. Have never figured out why. I grow very little spinach
But there’s more …
The spinach overage (and there will be as it has a limited growing window) will hopefully go to the local food bank.
Come to think of it, spinach a la Boston Market totally rocks! Yum.
[...] to season. Many Plangarden blog visitors have commented favorably on the White House garden: plangarden.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/your-take-on-the-obama-vegetable-garden/. Some have suggested establishing a square foot gardening system which conserves water and space, [...]