White House vegetable garden
Photo credit: White House Photo Blog/Brooks Kraft
Garden Variety readers have been asking how the first vegetable gardening season at the White House concluded, and the answer is, it isn't over yet.
Eddie Gehman Kohan, the tireless reporter behind the Obamafoodorama blog, reports that fall crops have been planted, including pumpkins. And a high-tech composter has been added as well. And so have bird houses, to go allow with the bee hive.
The White House is offering tours of its gardens later this month, but the vegetable garden is not on it. Only the formal gardens. And only to a few visitors.
This fall's tours are scheduled from 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturday, Oct. 17, and from 10 AM to 3 PM on Sunday, Oct. 18th.
Tours will be cancelled in the event of inclement weather, so call the 24-hour information line at 202-456-7041 to check on the status.
Tickets are free, but are only handed out in person by the National Park Service, on the days of the event.
These will be distributed at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, located at 15th and E Streets, beginning at 8:00 AM each day, on a first-come, first-served basis. The tickets are timed, and are one ticket per person, including children.
Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
Comments
Your readers with late season herb and vegetable gardens may well want to do with their extra produce what the Whte House garden does with its... donate it to a local food pantry.
AmpleHarvest.org is a site that helps diminish hunger by enabling backyard gardeners to share their crops with neighborhood food pantries.
The site is free both for the food pantries and the gardeners using it.
More than 970 food pantries nationwide are already on it and more are signing up daily.
It includes preferred delivery times, driving instructions to the pantry as well as (in many cases) information about store bought items also needed by the pantry (for after the growing season).
AmpleHarvest.org enables people to help their community by reaching into their back yard instead of their back pocket.
Lastly, if your reader's community has a food pantry, they should make sure the pantry registers on www.AmpleHarvest.org. Its free.
Posted by: gary | October 1, 2009 11:03 AM
Wow - would love to see the White House gardens, but too bad the vegetable garden is not on the list.
Did you see the recent Washington Post article about the (lack of) financial benefits of vegetable gardens? I blog about it at http://2greenacres.blogspot.com/2009/09/vegetable-gardens-smart-financial-move.html
Yes, I did. And I asked GV readers how they felt about the financial rewards of their veggie gardens...check the archive. Responses were interesting! --Susan
Posted by: 2 Green Acres | October 1, 2009 12:42 PM