White House Veggies

[plumtreeblossom]

I am unreasonably excited about the Obama's victory garden. 70 kinds of vegetables (including arugula)! Berry bushes! Bee hives! I'll look forward to seeing pictures of their bounty. And the girls can learn valuable gardening skills, the likes of which I do not possess.

Would that my yards were fit for vegetable gardening. The back yard is in full-time shade and is just a dirt pit, and the front yard is where I grow copious weeds (and a handful of wildflowers). I could bucket garden on the balcony, I think. And Somerville has community gardens. I should look into those.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I read this and was very excited. My how far we've come from 1980 when Ronald Regan had the solar panels Jimmy Carter installed on the White house roof removed.

You would be surprised at what you can grow in Somerville, even in the shade. That pumpkin in the photo above, 202.5 lbs. and 13th place at the Topsfield Fair, was grown in the backyard on Francesca Ave.

I would talk to someone at Pemberton maybe, or maybe even ask your landlord if some branches could be taken down to let more sun in.

This story inspired me to start my compost pile. the City of Somerville has very nice composters for sale for a nominal fee. Next, I need to start my tomatoes.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

This year I hope to win a lottery slot for a small community garden here in town -- wish me luck?

[mistergoat.livejournal.com]

I'm excited about this, but my excitement is a bit tempered. Obama planting this garden doesn't improve others' access to fresh organic food. it doesn't alter the structures that make it difficult for so many people to garden--lack of space, lack of uncontaminated soil, lack of time for the labor of it. Most of us don't have acres of yard or staff to work on our garden.

That said, I think that if this inspires people to garden more, and to take advantage of the resources they have, then great! If it leads to more discussion of organics and/or local food, also great. And if it heralds actual policy moves designed to improve people's access to local healthy food, then I'll be pretty psyched!