Realty Check

We've got a huge outdoor garden going at the moment....and with the high cost of fresh produce...i'm hoping it does well and produces...I've been unemployed for months and my partner will be after next week.
Fresh produce is a whole lot better than purchased stuff...

Like would you really be critical? How stupid do you think people are, Vicki. Maybe Michelle could take a course of liking her country. Be happy when their 4 years is over..if the country can hold together from their changes. God help us.

I was already planning to pull out a few more shrubs and get some raspberries in ground this spring, so I can't claim to be inspired. But I do appreciate the message she's sending. Gardening is a healthy hobby with uniformly good societal benefits, so it's hard to see how anyone can get upset about this.

Joan, bitter and pathetic party of one? This thread is about the White House garden, are you really that jaded that you have to post useless partisan rhetoric in a thread about vegetable gardening?

I have been backyard gardening for years and I love it!!!!

I use those big plastic containers that you store clothes, books, etc. in them.

Last year, I grew tomatos, cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, green pepper, squash, basil, sunflowers, sage and thyme, just to name a few!!!

Kudos, to Mrs. Obama!!!!!

Everybody should plant a vegetable garden whether you live in a house or apartment!!!

It's relaxing and fun!!!!

Is this not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard of. Michell Obama yesterday talking about how black kids did not like her because she talked white. Why don't she visit a white school? She is married to a multi-ethnic and I think she has a serious problem. I am with Joan God Help Us Until four years are over and we can get him out of there.

Who are you kidding, she is not making a vegetable garden. It is POT/Weed.

Once a druggie, always a dope pusher.

Joan just JEALOUS and BITTER!!!

Joan need to learn how to get close to mother nature!!!

Maybe she will feel better!!!!

So the cartoon guy that, had watermelons growing on the lawn of the White House should not have been called a racist..Its about to become a reality..yummy... LMAO

It is really sad when not one thing a person does can please some of you. I never made wise ass remarks about Laura Bush, but then again she never did anything anyway. Honestly it would not hurt for everyone in America to plant something that would grow, besides of coarse the crude name calling smart mouth attacks.These seem to grow on trees.

Janice is JEALOUS and BITTER, TOO!!!!

MadeinUSA, how would you know? Are you growing your own POT/WEED????

There are a bunch of NEGATIVE PEOPLE in this country!!!!

o-DUMB-ah:"So the cartoon guy that, had watermelons growing on the lawn of the White House should not have been called a racist..Its about to become a reality."

No, it's not. They aren't planting watermelon, and if you weren't yucking it up to racist stereotypes there is no reason to think they'd plant watermelon in the DC climate. Herbs, berries and basic greens are the sort of thing you'd want in this type of garden I'd think - it'll need to be a tidy, compact footprint. Watermelons make no sense at all except as a racist commentary.

o-DUMB-ah!!!

It's the GREEDY white men in this country that created this financial mess!!!!!

So, I've been growing veggies in with my flowers the past few years. I get beauty and food at the same time. Neighbors don't notice - in fact they compliment me on how full and lush my garden seems to be. HA! I made 16 quarts of jelly last year from the grape vine and the strawberry plants. Froze over 40 quarts of green beans and canned another 16 quarts of peas. Not to mention all the 48 quarts of tomato-based spaghetti sauce and 12 quarts of salsa's I canned last year. All from home-grown produce. And I live on a small lot! Talk about savings! Buying sugar in bulk helped keep the cost down a LOT!

We plant a vegetable garden every year. It's wonderful to get fresh home grown vegetables. Any time someone can help themselves and maybe their neighborhood by planting fruits and vegetables -- it's a very good thing.

I was thrilled today to check the mail box and find from Burpee Gardens of Warminster, Pennsylvania, my seeds. Costa Rican peppers, Poblanos, a tomato called Roma, and Okra. Later this summer these will all bend together to be enjoyed by those who have pallets that soar above bigotry. It is a delicious dish. We should all try some.

My very urban community has several neighborhood gardens AND an open-air public market that's 100+ years old. The Community (co-op) garden is next to my own, and the City provides, as a community resource, unlimited mulch & compost from the Refuse and Parks depatments. Lots of homeowners and apartment dwellers grow their own food and flowers here. It's a community organizing bonanza! People move here to be a part of it! No year goes by when I don't get fruit, vegatables, and home canned delacasies from my neighbors.

The "First Gardener" and the kids make me so proud, and we'll do well, and enjoy watching them grow their own - and grow up. My heart was truly warmed when I read about their garden.

I think that kids who don't grow up gardening become like the out-of-place commenters we see injecting their bitterness into this otherwise useful discussion.

things that you grow instead of buying means more money to spend on other things, its one of a number of ways that people over this side of the pond are saving money, another way is leaving the car at home and walking short distances

For those who have never felt the good earth between their fingers, the warmth of the sun shining on your back as you labor to grow a tomato or a flower, the result of good exercise from bending and kneeling, the taste of a fresh tomato or lettuce bunch from a garden, or exeperienced the joy of a flower blooming for the first or second or third time, you've missed a lot of life!Go Michele Obama...teach Joan and others like her.

sisterdearest09: Unless you have been a black person who is ridiculed---yes, by blacks AND whites---for "speaking like a white person" (and not know "our place"), you couldn't begin to understand. So don't pretend to. It has happened to many of us all our lives (another one, white people are fond of saying: "you are not like 'most' black people"). We get it from both races; good for Michelle for not being afraid to call attention to it.

And by the way, great article, Vicki, and kudos to Michelle and the White House chefs for calling attention to another solution that can only help. Makes one wonder why we hadn't gotten such solutions from previous administrations? Nothing Barack & Michelle do will be good enough for some of you, and we all know why. So odd that you are so "embarrassed" by this president, but not by the idiotic ramblings of Dubya!

Since I'm a Farmers Market Volunteer two days aweek, and a member of a Community Supported Farm I was happy to hear the W.H. now has a "1st Veggie Garden". Even condo owners in our area use wine barrels for deck garden. Tomato's, peppers, squash, herbs, and
beans do well as do fruit trees. Not only our health benefits from homegrown food, but it's a better use of our decreasing resource.......WATER. Green Thums Up to Mrs. O. When will people get it that working with the earth is our roots, not our politics.

Joan writes, "..a course of.." and Janice writes"..why don't she.." Both should be thanking God that the Obamas are strong advocates of education. Maybe they can get some help over the next four years. Where do they think food comes from? Maybe they would rather eat what's being shipped from China. If they hate the president of
America so much, why don't they just leave for four years...and live off the land some where else.

I am just shocked that a blog post about something wonderful, positive, and healthy can elicit such vitriol and hatred from people like Joan, Janice, "Dumb..." and others above. They should be ashamed of themselves. This lack of civility must stop.

It is not surprising that the uneducated closet racists are unable to articulate their ramblings in the most basic sentence structure. And it should be no surprise that they have no sense of the power of the smallest examples to change people for the better. Their small minded ways, and not so subtle attacks, should not be left to fester and grow - we've seen the danger of this on a worldwide scale. But we should focus the majority of our energy on the positive. Kudos to the president and the first lady for doing just that.