The White House gardens

Today's inauguration of the 44th US president seems an excellent time to revisit a topic we touched on last summer -- an online petition to transform some of the White House lawn into an edible vegetable garden.

This is being coordinated by Roger Doiron of Eat the View, the website where his ideas for less lawn and more veggies at the president's official home are detailed.

Not that the White House doesn't have gardens, of course. It's just that they're not kitchen gardens. Besides, it's a trend nowadays to call for replacing lawns with other plants.

Some commentators have been all in favor of this effort.  The Garden Ranters, for example, think it's high time. And in addition to an edible garden, they suggest getting rid of herbicides and pesticides [not that we know they're used at the White House] and growing native plants in addition to vegetables.

Others are more skeptical. When Shirley Bovshow's Eden Makers blog included this in a post about edible gardens versus front lawn, her readers'  comments ran the gamut.

What are our thoughts about the campaign to transform a little of the grass surrounding the White House into an attractive edible landscaping?