White House to compost kitchen scraps
The "green" blog Ecorazzi, which posts the latest in ecological gossip, is reporting that the White House will be installing a trio of compost bins to help amend the soil in the White House vegetable garden next year.
First Lady Michelle Obama's garden, which grew to Jack and the Beanstalk proportions this spring, was no doubt given a boost by the compost that was worked into the soil before the vegetable plants went in.
But that compost was trucked in - from New York celebrity chef Dan Barber, according the U.S. News and World Report.
As any gardener knows, it is easier to generate compost on site, and certainly there will be enough state dinner scraps (no meat, no dairy) and enough grass clippings and leaves to generate a heaping helping of compost for next year's garden.
Why three bins?
Gardeners with room often have three bins and move the compost from one to the next as it ages. (Check out the cute composite photo that Ecorazzi created to illustrate.)
No doubt, rumors will fly that it is fake compost.
Already, there is concern among Ecorazzi readers that the compost bins will draw flies and, since snatching flies out of the air is a new presidential sport, Mr. Obama will be too distracted to get to the business of running the country.
Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Amy Davis









Comments
Yeah for composting!!!
Posted by: NotableM | June 24, 2009 5:06 PM
This is a good thing. It costs less as well. It is great for the gardens. It is to bad that they were not doing it before. It keeps all of that stuff out of the land fills and does a better job back in your own garden instead.
Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"
Posted by: Dan and Deanna | June 25, 2009 2:24 AM
Oooooh, I just can't wait to hear how the conspiracy theorists spin this one!
Posted by: Eve | June 25, 2009 8:54 AM
But, but, Compost generates co2!
Everytime you open a Pepsi and release co2 a polar bear dies.
Posted by: Bill W | June 25, 2009 5:01 PM
How many people did they hire to make and tend to this White House garden? All reports make it sound as though Michelle is doing it all.
Posted by: Wayne | June 25, 2009 5:52 PM
I'm a lazy composter, but every year we get several wheelbarrows full of fabulous compost for our flower beds. Great stuff!
Posted by: Dahlink | June 25, 2009 7:56 PM
A robust vegetable garden produces so much waste that you can't really keep one up without composting -- a bin here, a pile there. Most gardeners keep multiple rot spots going. The White House garden needs its own composting area, or it won't function right as a garden.
I absolutely agree, Barbara. The more you grow, the more you have to compost!--Susan
Posted by: Barbara Pleasant | July 1, 2009 5:17 PM