Weeding by example

In the 1940’s, Victory Gardens were the thing to do in your backyard to support the war effort. Our current economy has created a trend to again “grow your own food” and has increased interest in backyard vegetable gardening. How about the famous South Lawn of the White House? Activists are currently lobbying for a White House “working farm” on America’s most famous lawn, the South Lawn of the White House. That’s right, according to the Washington Post, activists Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow have traveled through 25 states and collected 10,000 signatures on a petition urging President elect Barack Obama to transform the South Lawn of the White House into a working farm. I guess they’re interested that the most famous home in America be a place where when it comes to gardening we’re “weeding by example”. They’re not terribly optimistic but they have in their words “planted a seed”. I toured the White House this past summer and I must say, it is quite a sight to stand inside the White House and look across the South Lawn to the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial in the distance. It would also be quite a sight to see corn, tomato plants and other vegetables growing on the South lawn! Maybe the President’s helicopter with it’s famous landings and take offs from the lawn could double as a crop duster? I know former President George HW Bush was very vocal about how he hated broccoli. Not sure whether newly elected President Barack Obama and his family like broccoli, but I have an idea……maybe White House gardeners could develop a new hybrid broccoli for the garden and name it “Barack-oli”. It would bring sweeping change to backyard gardens across the country.