Help Grow an Organic Food Garden on the White House Lawn

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Is this really a feasible option for most Americans? I mean, don’t you spend MOST of your time growing your own food?

It’s very feasible. At the height of the Victory Garden movement, gardeners were supplying 40 percent of the nation’s fruits and vegetables. Consumption rates of fresh, healthy produce were never higher. Sure it takes time, but it doesn’t have to be a burden. There’s a lot of satisfaction that comes with being able to feed your family delicious, nutritious foods harvested at the peak of ripeness. Part of the art of gardening is knowing how to reduce the time spent on weeding, watering and pest management, so that you have more time for planting, harvesting and enjoying the fruits of your labors.

Do you have a step-by-step plan of action for how the White House food garden project should/could be implemented?

To be honest, I don’t have a well-developed plan because I don’t think it should be up to one person or one group to decide this. It is a landscape of historic importance and one that belongs to “we the people.” The plan of action for now is to rally a barely restrained mob of diverse people calling for an edible landscape of some shape or size on the “First Lawn.” Personally, I would like to see something that is ambitious, both horticulturally and socially. I’m imagining a large, organic garden capable of meeting all the seasonal produce needs of the White House kitchen with overflow going to local food pantries.

What would the necessary budget be?

It would be minimal to get started and would save money down the road. To give you a frame of reference, I spent less than $100 last year on seeds and supplies, and converted that investment into more than six months worth of fruits and vegetables for my family of five. The list of people who would be prepared to donate seeds and their time to the project would be a long one indeed.

Who would do the actual work?

It depends again on the size and nature of the project. Right now, the White House has a staff of 13 people maintaining the 18 acres of grounds and uses additional labor for seasonal jobs like tree trimming. Everything that happens within those 18 acres currently falls under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service. It seems like they would need to have a coordinating role, but it would be important to have citizen involvement at every step of the process.

How can Mother Earth News readers assist this effort?

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