Gardening guru Barbara Damrosch posed the following question in the Washington Post last week:
Which candidate will pledge to be the Gardening President? Who will be the one to take the lead in teaching food self-sufficiency and good nutrition to the American public?
During World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt grew beans and carrots on the White House lawn to inspire other Americans to plant their own “victory gardens;” during World War I, Woodrow Wilson’s wife Edith grazed sheep on that same lawn.
The first kitchen garden at the White House was planted all the way back in 1800 by President John Adams. The most recent attempt to revive this tradition came courtesy of Alice Waters, who tried to persuade Bill Clinton to plant a vegetable garden. Sadly, as Damrosch notes, “the plan was deemed out of keeping with the grounds’ formal style, and nothing came of it.”
Damrosch wants to re-plant this idea and see if it will take root this time round now that we’re counting our food miles:
Perhaps the time has come to bring back the Victory Garden in a new guise: as a war on childhood obesity, inactivity, addiction to highly processed food with empty calories, and the use of fossil fuels to grow and ship us our meals.
What a great example the next President of the United States could set by planting vegetables on the White House lawn. Hey, maybe they could even set up a laundry line and make it cool to fight global warming by air-drying your socks and undies. In an era when airing the White House’s dirty laundry is standard operating procedure, how refreshing would it be to see some clean laundry waving in that beltway breeze?
Join the war on crappy, carbon-fueled food and learn how to plant your own victory garden at Kitchen Gardeners International. 
CATEGORIES: Education, Environment
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Turf sucks in so many ways! Veggies, berries, natural grasses and medicinal plants shaded by maples for syrup would be pretty! Clover may bring back the honey bees!
Inspired by Mr. David R. Ford after reading his book Marijuana Not Guilty as Charged.
On my Many Powerful Men list for his love of science and the truth.
Grass, the Good
We have two kinds of grass, one good and one bad.
Man’s hybrid sucks resources, yet became such a fad;
The other helped people, but made rich men mad.
They could not patent it, and they wanted the wealth.
They wrote propaganda; used slight of hand stealth
To undermine the benefits to happiness and health.
Mankind turned to tobacco, alcohol and crystal meth.
Some legals cause harm, bringing premature death.
They cause such tragedy, like Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Nature made a medicine, the best she could grow.
It heals so much sorrow. How were we to know
Man would hide the truth and turn gift into foe?
Can we right a great wrong; let nature’s medicine be?
There are so many sad, and lonely people; but not me.
Mother nature will take care of us if we stop, look, and see.
Tale of Two Grasses
A long time ago, when Nature ruled earth,
A great green grass grew. To smoke it gave mirth.
It relaxed the body and calmed the nerve.
The plant gave such joy; its purpose to serve.
Man made it illegal a short time ago.
He can’t forsee futures, nor any of the woe.
The grass that man likes, he must mow and then thatch.
He must pour on his poisons, killing nature’s flower patch.
His grass has been altered, to grow from its base.
He cuts off its top; no leaves hide its face.
It is watered and fertilized, with such loving care.
Then gives back so little, to oxygenate our air.
Hard drugs and legal ones are rampant now.
Mankind is in trouble, so I take a vow,
To tell the whole truth. I won’t tell you lies.
I have smoked with the Arabs and dreamt with the Thais.
The fight against drugs is being lost by mankind.
The more we say don’t, the more he must find.
How did one gain such favour, the other outlawed?
Lets look at all facts, see which ones are flawed.
We wanted such riches. We forgot common sense.
Many know the truth, but sit on the fence.
Man’s grass is a hybrid, Nature’s, a token of love.
Let’s right a great wrong. Legalize the bud from above.
Love Lora Bruncke