Kitchen Garden Tips: Be Like Michelle Obama!

Does the country feel a little healthier today to you? A little more frugal? Maybe it's because First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground on a White House "kitchen garden" today. Maybe you're inspired by that -- or just by skyrocketing seed sales all across America. Either way, here's a quick guide to get you started growing your own food.

KITCHEN GARDENING TIPS

1. Tap into your community. People around you can help answer questions specific to your area. Ask at your local nursery or farmer's market about what will grow well in conditions you have access to -- and make sure it's something you'll actually eat!

2. Start small. If you've never gardened before, or if you don't have much room to work with, try this great guide to growing strawberries at home.

3. Get your soil for free!

4. Composting helps your plants, helps you connect to nature and helps cut down on waste! There are tons of guides to this. Try starting here.

5. If it's still too cold where you are, you can start your plants indoors -- and you can even use the help of ultra-efficient LED lights.

And Treehugger has a whole set of gardening tips directed at the Obamas, too!

Here's Michelle Obama starting the project:

• • • • • • • • •

WHAT WILL BE IN THE OBAMAS' GARDEN?

According to AP, the White House kitchen garden is pretty ambitious, with "spinach, broccoli, various lettuces, kale and collard greens, assorted herbs and blueberries, blackberries and raspberries."

I can only hope that the first lady's next project is on the White House roof -- she did look at a few exhibits on solar power and rooftop gardening, after all!

Comments

[teasley]

03:41 PM on 03/23/2009

I can see it all now, The first lady out back in her jeans and plaid shirt, wiping the sweat off her brow while tending to her greens. Wake the heck up people. It was a great photo op. And there will be more. In the meantime the white house staff will toil in the garden while she does cover shoots.

[wookierage]

02:36 PM on 03/23/2009

Here's a step by step process for building your own veggie garden in your back yard. My wife and I built this in 1-2 days. http://www.our-home-planet.com/creating-a-vegetable-garden

[lydiajean]

01:29 PM on 03/23/2009

where is her saddle?

[RMJ50]

01:21 PM on 03/23/2009

This is great. Gardening is good for both the soul and the body.

On the other hand, I would have loved to see Michelle in jeans, old sweatshirt and dirty workboots - these are appropriate for working in a garden and would have definitely made a fashion statement.

[fiestyslug]

12:44 PM on 03/23/2009

As a lifelong gardener just a few responses to the negativity here:
All seeds except onion seeds can be used for at least 2 - 3 years, tomato seeds for up to 5 years, so your initial investment can be spread over several years.
Mulch, mulch, mulch!!!! It saves water, prevents weeds and adds to the soil.
Compost if you can, you save on garbage fees, get great amendments to your soil and see nature in action.
Start small and add on as your comfort level grows, it is also helpful to have your garden where you will be walking by it at least once a day. The garden has a strong pull as you keep looking to see if seeds have sprouted, plants are blooming, fruit is setting.
Go organic. By not using pesticides, you will get the best free labor ever - lady bugs, parasitic wasps, praying mantis, etc.
Plant a few flowers with your veggies - they attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
ENJOY! My garden brings me much peace - not near the oppression some on here would portray.

[fiestyslug]

12:16 PM on 03/23/2009

Fruits and veggies you raise yourself are often tastier and certainly fresher than grocery store produce shipped from Chile or wherever. Another good alternative for those who can't or don't want to garden is the local farmer's market or supporting grocery stores that sell locally grown produce. Michelle Obama is setting a good example and informing citizens. She did not put down a mandate that all must farm, nor is she going to be the gardener. So amazing the negativity over such minute things. We raise and preserve as much of our own produce as we can, it saves us a bundle and we eat healthier as a result.

[Cakey4814]

10:51 AM on 03/23/2009

I just knew that there would be people that would find something to criticize FLOTUS regarding this article and I wasn't disappointed..from her shoes to this just being a photo-op..unbelieveable..

[dontvote4him]

10:47 AM on 03/23/2009

Any collard greens in that garden?

[fiestyslug]

12:20 PM on 03/23/2009

I realize your comment is meant to be snarky, but as a matter of fact, they did plant some greens. Have you ever eaten them? I raise them and have eaten them since I was a young girl when my grandmother fixed them - she was French by the way and neither of us has any african ancestory - which of course is your implication.

[Cakey4814]

12:49 PM on 03/23/2009

I know you won't get a respond to that cause the blogger thought they were being funny along with the racial implications and you responded without resorting to namecalling..thanks..

[dontvote4him]

03:53 PM on 03/23/2009

Momma raised me on them from her garden and I passed them on (growing and cooking) to a friend who became the rave of his neighborhood because of him being of the caucasian persuaion. Even the brotha's would visit his garden and be amazed.

[KellyHudson]

01:03 AM on 03/23/2009

Good Example by a Great Leaders wife. I hope moms would follow. I hope Whatever is grown in the gardens will be consumed at White House. This would be great to be published along with a comment's thread to http://www.bizymoms.com/philadelphia/index.php where a large mom community will see.

[Lionsden]

08:59 PM on 03/22/2009

This is nice. I hope HuffPo follows the story. That means I want to see what happens with the broccoli!
Blueberries are perennials. So, it seems this garden might be a long-term project. And it could be a legacy for a permanent kitchen garden at the White House and I think that is fantastic.

In these troubled times, everyone should be encouraged to plant a garden. It's a matter a national security, in my opinion.

It would be great to see this administration focus on Mother Earth News type self-sufficiency. Many of the things involved in self-sufficient living are expensive (like composting toilets or wood stoves). If they became widely used, they would be cheaper and better for the environment and independent living.

[pupbayer]

05:44 PM on 03/22/2009

Michelle said the President would also be doing his share of weeding. May I suggest he take his weeding time out of his basketball, bowling, late night comedy appearances, or his jetting around time and not out of his governing time. We have some problems that are a little more important.

[dems08]

07:30 PM on 03/22/2009

Sure, he'll now spend all his time eating, sleeping, or working in the Oval Office.

Next?

[pupbayer]

08:02 PM on 03/22/2009

Good.

[placeyourvote]

07:46 PM on 03/22/2009

We know bush spent his first 60 days cutting brush in texas

[pupbayer]

08:02 PM on 03/22/2009

I hate to break it to you but Bush isn't the President. I live in the present not the past. Bush was a nightmare and he's gone, thank heavens. You need to get over it and move forward. This is Obama's watch now...he needs to tend to business not his garden. That's what we're payig him to do. He wanted the job. He needs to do it.

[Bitsko]

04:35 PM on 03/22/2009

Fun First Lady Factoid: Eleanor Roosevelt ate three chocolate-covered garlic balls every day for most of her adult life.

[klondiker]

07:05 PM on 03/22/2009

Interesting!

[buggedabouttheus]

03:54 PM on 03/22/2009

With our move north has come many blessings. We miss our garden in New Orleans very much. especially since we have no gardening space where we live now nor a front porch or rear porch to go container growing either. We now live vicariously through other people's gardens. Bully for Mrs. Obama!

[wendy31]

05:59 PM on 03/22/2009

I live vicariously through others gardens right now too. Glad to see this happening!

[jackpinesavage]

02:08 PM on 03/22/2009

Re: Huffpo's #3 tip, it's the worst advice imaginable (unless free is more important to you than success). Fill dirt is not soil, and container gardening is not done with soil in any case.

I'm also skeptical of #5. Not that it won't work, but that the effort for the amount of seeding space would be worth it. One would probably be better served to build a small cold frame with found materials or provide supplemental light to a windowsill with a small fluorescent after germination.

As one who gives gardening advice for a living, my fear is that the current enthusiasm for growing some of your own food will be hurt badly by failures that result from people following suspect advice that they get from places like the huffpo. Go to your local, independent garden center and ask questions. Or visit sites like gardenweb (i'm nothing more than a reader, it isn't a plug) that are populated by knowledgeable who's focus is gardening rather than writing.

[spartanmom]

04:09 PM on 03/22/2009

Tip 3 is the worst, you are right. Even when you are paying for soil you need to be careful. Around here there is an incinerator that treats contaminated soil and some contractors use it because it is cheap but nothing will grow in it because it is dead.

Know where your soil comes from!

In containers a high quality planting medium will more than pay for itself. Plus since it is way lighter than soil, your containers will be easier to move.

For a way cheaper way to increase the light for window ledge growing, Back up your plantings with the shiny side of some aluminum foil. I am curious about the LEDs though

[jackpinesavage]

05:17 PM on 03/22/2009

Adding a reflector (whether for natural or artificial light) is always a good idea.

I've heard both good and bad reports on LED lighting for horticultural uses, but nothing conclusive either way. Nor have i bothered trying it myself, a cheap shoplight with high quality bulbs works just fine and costs little to operate for the short period of seed starting. LED is probably fine for seed starting, but as i noted, a whole string of Xmas lights was used for a 3 gallon rubbermaid tote. That's very little space, and you'd have to add ventilation of some sort. The pictures on the linked article showed clearly visible mold growth on the soil surface.

Pro-Mix or Fertilome's Sunshine Mix are the best (i prefer the former, because it's lighter). And never be fooled by the Hypenex (sp?) stuff at big box home improvement stores...it's worthless.

[PoliticalAmazon]

06:27 PM on 03/22/2009

ITA about that tip. In addition to what is lacking in the soi, unless the soil has been solarized, it ma carry a very heavy weed-seed bank, heavy metal contaminants, and disease-causing bacteria and fungi.

The other issue that wasn't mentoned here was water. In the west we are going to a Perfect Storm of conditions that have produced a major drought. Beware of any articles that say you can save money by growing your own vegetables. I've seen two published in local papers (one of which was an AP story!) where such a claim as made, and as support for this claim the authors quoted one man's account in Portland, Maine (which received twice as much rainfall per year as does our California area, and received inches of rainfall all summer long, when we receive zero. Another article quoted a study done in 1984 in Florida in a region where there is continual rainfall (no charge for irrigation water) and pretty good soil (our local soil is almost 100% dune sand).

However, almost anyone can grow a pot of herbs and tomatoes. Plants in pots are easier to correctly water (in-ground plants often receive too much water, with the excess draining past the root zone).

[readinggirl]

12:21 AM on 03/22/2009

As a landscape contractor specializing in designing, installing and tending home & restaurant edible gardens, I wish the Obama's had taken a page from the Oprah playbook by bringing in a professional who is an experienced inspiring teacher who could continue to carry the torch. Michelle posing for photos in patent leather boots with a group of children as a work crew is hollow and pandering. To any true gardener this was nothing more than an unoriginal and superficial photo-op, and Michelle missed an opportunity to honor the people who are really going to remove the grass, dig the holes, lay the irrigation, plant the seeds, pull the weeds and harvest the plants.

[Mavsreader]

09:06 AM on 03/22/2009

I do know where to come when looking for the Gardening Police--Huffington Post. The GP have decided who can garden, how much help one should get while gardening,who to credit, what one should be wearing, and that gardening shouldn't be promoted as "easy" or "cheap".

[fiestyslug]

12:36 PM on 03/23/2009

LOL good one, garden police!!

[spartanmom]

01:18 PM on 03/22/2009

sounds like sour grapes.

[jackpinesavage]

01:39 PM on 03/22/2009

No sounds like someone who does rather than talks.