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Friday, March 20, 2009

This Lawn is Your Lawn*

Just after Barack Obama was elected president, I ran across a group called Kitchen Gardeners International. They had created a campaign called Eat The View that was petitioning the president elect to replace the front lawn of the white house with a kitchen garden.

(Here's a quick little cartoon explaining the history of growing food at the White House. Good lesson for the kiddos too.)


The Garden of Eatin': A Short History of America's Garden from roger doiron on Vimeo.


Of course I signed their petition and put myself on their (e)mailing list.

And just yesterday I received an email from KGI announcing that the Obamas will actually be putting in a garden.



I'm not even sure exactly why it is that this makes me so very happy.

But it does.

* The title was borrowed from another video at the Eat The View site.
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6 comments:

  1. FinnyKnitsMarch 20, 2009 at 11:19 AM

    YES! I was so excited when I got my email this morning, I read it before anything else.

    So amazing! And it's not even, like, a shrimpy size garden or anything - 1100 square feet! That's bigger than my house!

    Anyway - so awesome. Although I feel I should warn them against planting so much Evil Chard. Not to mention kale and collards. Yarf. That stuff gets old fast.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 20, 2009 at 2:13 PM

    Yay! They keep on doing everything right. I love it! It is huge too. We're going to grow some more edibles this year - though we have no yard - will be in containers. Fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ImcombobulatedMarch 20, 2009 at 2:21 PM

    Me too! Me too! I was giddy when I got the email! And now I'm giddy to know that someone else was as excited as I was. (I'm not American.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. WendyMarch 21, 2009 at 8:43 AM

    Finny, maybe you should send them a note of warning about all those greens.

    Amber, I've been inspired about the garden too after seeing this. Good for you for growing even without a yard. So many people use that as an excuse. I might. ;)

    Kidletsmum, I think I'm so excited because I totally didn't expect that they would actually do it. I told a friend who gardens organically and her exact words were, "No Way!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. heather janeMarch 22, 2009 at 9:48 PM

    I posted this video on my blog in January. I love it so. Yesterday I also posted a picture of Michelle Obama shoveling up some turf.

    It's a happy, happy thing to have people in the oval office who feel the immediacy of setting this example.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Renee Unplugged -March 23, 2009 at 1:27 PM

    Hi Wendy!
    It makes me very happy too for the following reasons:
    -They take food seriously
    -They take GOOD food seriously
    -They know it's important to be a good example
    -They take the environment and it's impact on the food supply seriously
    -They are good, hardworking, normal people...even if they are in the White House.
    -They are not above every-day Americans, they are with us.

    YAY!

    It feels SO good to be American now, even though I have to listen to all the financial nay-sayers where I work.

    ReplyDelete

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