The White House Garden is thriving!

Exclusive Video: White House Garden Survives, Thrives in Washington Winter
from the Daily Flotus by Lynn Sweet, 3-26-10

Despite a harsh Washington winter -- two blizzards and several feet of snow -- the recently harvested White House garden yielded a bounty of lettuce, spinach, and a lot of turnips.

"Nobody thought that the garden would survive," said Kass.

It not only survived, it thrived, making First Lady Michelle Obama's signature project a four-season source of fresh produce.

The plants grew over the winter covered by white plastic stretched over hoops, trapping the heat of the sun by day and keeping the plants warm at night. But even Kass was not sure the "hoop houses" would work. "The fact of the matter is we didn't know."

The video shows how the hoop houses exceeded expectations. The harvest included robust looking lettuce, spinach and arugula, Kass said leeks will be ready in the spring, garlic and peas will be picked later, as will carrots, planted but not harvested.

Ground for the 1,100-square-foot garden on the west side of the South Lawn was cleared on March 20, 2009 and first planted in April, with a "perfect" southern exposure.

"The planting of this garden was one of the first things I wanted to do as First Lady here at the White House," Mrs. Obama said at an earlier harvest on June 17. At the opening of a Farmers Market on Sept. 17 in Washington, Mrs. Obama said the garden was "one of the greatest things I've done in my life, so far."

The garden was been wildly successful, growing into Mrs. Obama's anti-childhood obesity campaign.

Kass, gesturing toward stakes already in the ground, says in the video "we are going to be expanding our garden this year, at the request of the First Lady." The plan is to "build a couple more rows of beds," Kass said.

In assessing the harvest, Kass said it was "more humble" than a summer picking, "but I think we did pretty great."

(link to article: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/26/exclusive-video-white-house-garden-survives-thrives-in-washing/)