10 Garden Ideas to Steal from Michelle Obama - Gardenista
Photography via Obama Foodorama except where noted. Tomorrow when Michelle Obama and a corps of photogenic multicultural schoolchildren head out to the White House lawn to plant vegetable seedlings... ...they ll be kicking off the seventh growing season of a flourishing edible garden that once caused skeptics to roll their eyes Michelle Obama’s gardening wardrobe has evolved with her garden. Would it rain?” Michelle Obama wrote in American Grown, the story of how she embarked on an adventure: planting her first garden. Photograph via American Grown. The White House kitchen garden has the good fortune to be sited in full sun. Two helpful hints from the checklist: Put the tallest plants in the back of thegarden so they don’t steal the sun from shorter plants and lay out planting rows from north to south “to maximize the sun’s rise and fall.” Lettuce seedlings in raised beds in the White House garden in early April 2015. If you’re growing lettuce from seed, sow the cool weather crop now for a harvest in late spring and early summer. For slate garden markers similar to the ones in the White House garden see High Low Slate Garden Marker Kits If you... ...have a small garden plot after the spring harvest enrich the soil by digging in compost and manure and then plant summer crops Corn is one of the summer crops in the White House garden. The more you tend your own garden, the healthier you’ll be. Tomatillos in the White House garden. In addition to growing the usual suspects, the White House gardeners plant tomatillos, sea kale, and Lincoln oats (all of which end up on the menu at the White House). Red flowering salvia (R) is planted alongside peanuts, pumpkins, papaya, figs, lemon grass, and squash in the White House garden. Plant flowers that attract bees, birds, butterflies, and moths. Last spring Michelle Obama planted two types of milkweed as host plants for endangered monarch butterflies. Monarch caterpillars live exclusively on milkweed plants according to the National Wildlife Federation Milkweeds contain glycoside toxins that are harmless to the monarch but poisonous to its predators Monarch caterpillars feed... ...on all the different parts of milkweed plants and store up the toxins in their body The toxins remain in their system even after metamorphosis thereby making adult monarchs poisonous as well A beehive on the White House lawn next to the vegetable beds. A plaque in the White House garden has a quote from Thomas Jefferson to remind gardeners that the hope is “the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another” will provide a bountiful harvest.