Weekend Fall Gardens Tour at 1600

Just outside the Oval Office and the Cabinet
Room the Rose Garden in fall bloom.  Most only see the grass during
press conferences but the area is trimmed in trees , pruned hedges and
a variety of flowers and of course, Roses.  Photo courtesy The Los Angeles Times
 
In November 2008, President Bush and President-elect Obama walk past a gorgeous visage of fall roses and flora on the West Colonnade past the Rose Garden.

Pat Nixon started the idea of a garden tour for the White House.  These 18 acres are one of the glowing crown jewels of the National Park System.  For two days each fall and spring the White House opens its doors to the public to see and tour the botanical landscape in two vastly different seasons, yet with stunning blooms. Someday I will actually arrange to take this tour and stand outside and wait for my first come first serve ticket on the Ellipse. (Fall 2008 Rose Garden courtesy all natural annie)

Burnished autumn leaves and bountiful cornucopias herald the arrival of the fall season.  Michelle Obama's bees are slowing down. The first lady has her resident carpenter/beekeeper to thank for granting her the ability to bestow a unique White House gift of homegrown local honey upon the G20 wives for her debut as international hostess.  One can only goggle what her honey would go for on the open market on eBay.  Yet, the tranquility of fall is a beautiful time at the White House as the crisp air warns of the coming holiday season and the upcoming social season in the executive mansion.  Now is the last time for 2009 to take in the tour - weather permitting, of the White House in its seasonal splendor.  Perhaps, there may be other tours once the holiday decorations go up but that is for the inside of the manor.  October 17th and 18th are the days set aside to bask in the air outdoors to view the blooms in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden, Children's Garden, the South Lawn and a better look than the spring of Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden.

The pergola is just barely visible where a great place to sit and contemplate or host a tea party in the gardens on the East side of the White House with the perfectly shaped topiary trees.

Vivid blooms will be found in the East Garden, more formally known as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.  The Children's Garden with its climbing tree, little iron sitting spots and the cement preserved hand prints of presidential kin is charming.  It leads to the garden most discussed around the world, Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden.  That garden is only eight months old and produced a bumper crop of greens and vegetables that made it to the family plates and in salads a number of guests consumed, including members of congress.  On the White House website, Michelle Obama and chef Sam Kass give an overview of the idea and their thoughts about eating locally. 

Tuesday was Latina Fiesta night for an Evening at the White House performance broadcast tonight on PBS.  As a chef with two successful restaurants in New Jersey his menu blended Latin foods from a variety of geographical zones and ethnic identity.  The rare oooh & ahh moment came for Chef Maricel Presilla as he was able to go to the Kitchen Garden and harvest greens, tomatillos for spicy pepper sauce and use some of the honey.  Part of the bumper crop from the White House gets donated to a local nonprofit to feed the hungry and the homeless.  Its popularity leads to Michelle Obama kicking off the 40th season of Sesame Street on November 10th talking about gardens and local food.  It is this garden that many in the public are anxious to get a closer look atm but it is strictly look, don't touch.  You would be eating Malia & Sasha's food for next week!

This is the Children's Garden during a spring Garden tour.  The little ones are fascinated by the handprints of many of the first children started by President & Ladybird Johnson and the fish pond.

Handprints in the Children's Garden flagstone of President & Barbara Bush's granddaughters done during his time in office and not while their parents were in the White House.  Photo courtesy the Bush White House (We do not know if Sasha & Malia did their handprints over the summer - maybe someone on the tour can report back and let us know!)

It would not be the White House, rich with presidents who were farmers first, to not tie in famous quotes on the land and its use.  Thomas Jefferson rotated crops and found good crop yields at Monticello.  He brought the idea of the formal English style gardens to the White House along with the colonnades as an eighteenth century garage for horses.The magnolia tree planted by Andrew Jackson, the trees dedicated by President and Mrs. Hillary Clinton, the South Lawn treehouse loving built by grandpa, otherwise known around the world as President Jimmy Carter.

This is the Thomas Jefferson quote placed in the Obama Kitchen Garden by the White House culinary staff.  Photo courtesy Obama Foodorama.

The garden tour is almost forty years old now.  It is a ticket that will take advantage of seeing the White House scenery at its best for fall. Here is the link to the Spring Garden tour, exactly 6 months ago, Gardens of the White House.

White House Quacks, Barks & Stings

WH View from Putting Green on South Lawn near Oval Office (Photo Courtesy Architectural Digest)

New First Families are the regular order of the day when presidents switch in and out. The multi-faceted talented White House staff takes that in stride. It is the more unusual outdoorsy happenings from the pets and critters, great and small, that give the Executive Mansion a bit of swerve and verve. During the chills of winter, the first lady signed off on a first-ever bee hive for making White House Honey. A horticulture plan must be in place for the right types of flowers to groom next to the hive. Bees are pretty active in the spring and summer collecting pollen from all the flowering plants. It just so happens a White House carpenter extraordinaire and bee master reside in the body of Charley Brandts who takes great pictures of the hive on the WH grounds when not wearing his superhero bee keeping cape.

Michelle Obama said some eyebrows definitely raised when presenting the garden design (chefs, bee keepers, head horticulturist, Chief Usher, National Park Service) plans to a skeptical Malia & Sasha who have a vested interest in their new backyard. The grounds team appropriated prime space for their swing set. Deep in the southern 9 acres is Momma Obama's garden, with the hive closer to the tennis court and the children's garden and that big grand fountain surrounded by blooms. Prior summer flowers for the fountain included geraniums, marigold lilies (lots of marigolds in the Obama Victory Garden) and petunias. Add the inquisitive nature of Sherlock Holmes to one rambunctious puppy and things can get a bit tense. Bo's walks are matters of national security. Seriously. When in DC, the president walks Bo. Not sure what Secret Service protocol is for a bee protest.

Bo passes the West Wing on a walk with White House Horticulturist Dale Haney. He has a great deal of experience with First Family pets too.)

Bo is closer than most Americans will ever be to the "football" - the codes for the nuclear weapons. The White House doctor will make sure no allergy sufferers are without the appropriate antidotes. Interesting, because in about 6 weeks, the Obamas will host a major annual gathering of congressional spouses, children and friends on the South Lawn, close to the Fourth of July, before he and Michelle make another international tour, including Ghana. At this time, it is not clear whether either or both of the First Daughters will accompany their parents on such a major trip. The East Wing is already gearing up for the inevitable press crush probably making the First Family appreciate the secret life of bees more.

(Charlie Brandts removing North swarm of bees after installing the domesticated bees on South Lawn)

A few suicidal bees roaming on pollen patrol could send things out of hand, if not paying attention during the season. That already happened in the near the West Gate, with the same beekeeper going out in full regalia to collect the Queen Bee and the swarms and rescue the media from enduring bee stings while doing their live shots on the North side of the White House. The "Renegade" bees (ha ha code name puns) moved in without an election to enjoy an annual springy "Renaissance" garden as the shy "Radiance" of the brilliant sunshine pours on the youngest "Rosebud" determined to use the outdoor pool to teach her new Portuguese Water Dog how to swim.(Photo with hive to the left Courtesy of City Bees, a blog with several posts detailing the insider story of the Obama's sanctioned bees.)

It is known that squirrels frequent the South Lawn. In the middle of this natural park, a Ducky Mom created her own tour of the West Wing shepherding her ducklings past an assistant press secretary's window inspecting the White House grounds. Michele Obama did not arrange for ducks a la orange in the ramped up local food initiative. (Outside West Wing of the White House Photo courtesy New York Daily News)

Sorry for the longer than planned posting absence, but an emergency illness arose stinging me in more ways than one.

Gardens of the White House

Today and tomorrow the White House is holding a garden party of sorts with a first come, first served Spring Tour from 10 am to 4pm. Beautiful timing as the colorful blooms are experiencing a peak blossoming period with cherry trees filling in handsomely. Very picturesque were the Obamas, with one member of the family on a leash, as they took a very public frolic across the rolling South Lawn on Tuesday. The day before, that same White House Lawn hosted the Easter Monday Egg Roll with almost 30,000 pairs of feet, big and small, running and rolling across it all day with scads of green picket fences marking paths. (Top L Photo from Lafayette Park showing North Portico, Top R - Rose garden, Photo Malia Obama out for first public dog walk/run)

As the tour goes through the boxwood hedges of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, dedicated as a floral tribute on April 22, 1965 by our first Environmental Activist First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, in honor of all of Mrs.Kennedy's award winning work in preserving the history and artifacts of the White House, the precision and and the layering of the gardenwill be awesome. It is quite the spot for First Lady tea parties. Mrs. Hillary Clinton turned it into a statuary art project surrounded by hollyhocks.

Little known is Jackie Kennedy's other excavation project at the White House. The beautiful Rose Garden as the outdoor green Oval Office we all know today shows her and the president's landscape design work. Caroline used to ride by on her pony Macaroni as the bulldozers ripped the area out to compose the garden. So in a manner, on the White House's East Wing, The Jacqueline Kennedy Garden is an elegant balance to the majesty of the Rose Garden outside the West Wing. The white cast iron Rococo Revival bench shown often in photographs of the garden has held residence in the spot since a decade before President & Mary Todd Lincoln took up residence.

Mrs. Obama's new circa 2009 Victory Garden will not be a feature on the tour. It can be glimpsed on the tour, but probably a little better opportunity is the wrought iron fence as its closer towards the fountain. I would love to get in the dirt in that garden and discover the secrets of the White House compost pile. But hidden before Michelle's new Garden is the child friendly and charming Children's Garden. Malia & Sasha, maybe Bo, will get to do the honors soon of placing their prints next to the other children and grandchildren of presidents for posterity. The Children's Garden is the invention of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It sits between the Tennis Court and the basketball half court.

(Photo courtesy of White House Museum/Erinzone)