Growing Michelle Obama's White House Garden

When Michelle Obama, along with 23 Washington, D.C., elementary students dug that first shovel of soil on the White House grounds in late March, it was one small divot in the South Lawn and one giant scoop for the health and well-being of everyone in the country who likes to eat well and play in the dirt.

The White House Kitchen Garden, a 1,100-square-foot plot for organic fruits and vegetables, is the first garden at the president's official home since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden. And while that first lady's World War II garden was created to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort, as well as helping to boost morale across the country, Michelle Obama's garden will go beyond horticulture.

The garden will not only renew the public's interest in homegrown produce but will stand as a symbol that growing more food locally and organically can lead to decreasing reliance on industrial farms (and all the harmful elements that accompany it such as fertilizer and fuel), as well as help guide us to more healthful eating.
The decision to eat healthier and cut grocery costs is something all of us are interested in. Don't believe me? Just pay a visit to your favorite garden center or farmers market, and you'll find plenty of first-time gardeners perusing the herbs and vegetables, and asking the experts questions.

The White House garden is home to 55 varieties of organic fruits and vegetables, including everything from arugula to zucchini with some unusual herbs (Thai basil and anise hyssop), as well as black kale, tomatillos and a wide variety of lettuces and berries. And already, some of the vegetables have moved from earth to fork, thanks to the warmer climate zone and earlier planting date. Oakleaf lettuce, red romaine, speckled lettuce and fennel and were billed on a White House menu in late April, and fresh thyme has been served as a garnish for fish.

But you don't have to be that ambitious to have a successful plot designed to feed you and your family, and fortunately our nippy nights and breezy days are over, and with the frost date now safely past in Michigan, it's time to get started.

If you haven't got your garden plot ready, get busy now and following the White House's lead, use organic compost and insect repellents.

We've provided the plot layout and the vegetable suggestions, so for a small investment in seedlings and a tool or two, you'll soon be digging your way to good health and a fatter wallet.

In the coming weeks, we'll be offering you gardening tips from Homestyle columnist Nancy Szerlag, and I will be providing recipes so you can make delicious use of what you've grown.

This week, I'm featuring an arugula, spinach and strawberry salad (Page 14H), which, if you were ahead of the game and sprinkled the seeds last month, you should be enjoying now. If not, visit a local market that supports Michigan produce.

And if you don't have a backyard or a suitable plot of land, there are still ways to help yourself and help the environment. Don't let the fact that you're a novice stop you, either; the first lady admits this is her first venture in gardening.

Just about any vegetable can be grown in a container -- from herbs to tomatoes and peppers. You can combine vegetable plants with flowers in your front yard, use containers on your patio or deck, or visit a community garden and sign up. Soon, you'll find that weeding and hoeing is a great way to de-stress, and that reaping what you sow tastes pretty delicious.

Failing all that, what about that windowsill. Doesn't it look a bit bare with nothing on it? You have no excuse for not picking up that shovel. This is the time for us all to get involved. We will all be better for it.