White House Veggie Garden - Photo taken July 17, 2009

[Tx4obama]

This is a photo of the White House Veggie Garden that a friend of mine took for me when he was in D.C. July 17, 2009.
It is not a very close up shot but you can tell how much the garden had grown in it.

[Catshrink]

1. Nice shot...

too bad they had to dig it up because of the lead. Maybe they can make a raised garden and try again. I feel badly for all those kids who really worked hard to get it going.

[tabatha]

2. I read that they are going to keep on going with it.

The lead ppm is very low.

[Catshrink]

3. That's good to hear...

[Tx4obama]

4. Looks like they kept it.

From http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/lead-found-in-white-house-garden/?pagemode=print

"White House officials say there is no need to worry."


At least it was still there July 17th when the photo was taken ;)

[Cha]

5. Do you have a link that they "dug it up"?

Because I read that it wasn't true..

<snip>

"Not so says the first lady’s office.

The White House had the soil tested for safety purposes, and the results showed lead at 93 parts per million — higher than typical background levels in urban areas, but low enough not to be considered a health risk.

Penn State’s College of Agriculture Sciences, for example, says anything under 150 parts per million is either not contaminated or has very low lead contamination. It does not recommend any action for gardening in soils with those lead levels.

“The garden recently underwent extensive soil testing that proved it is completely safe,” said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, the first lady’s press secretary."


<more>
http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/07/02/white-house-garden-lead-scare-a-bit-overblown/

[Tx4obama]

6. Btw...

Apparently the reason the lead was there in the first place was because:

"... a brand of sewage-sludge-based fertilizer that has been known to contain high levels of lead was spread on the White House's South Lawn through the '90s."

[NJCher]

7. garden is doing well

Looks like a nice garden with raised beds and quite a number of tomatoes toward the back. I'll bet that is Swiss chard near the front.

It was nice of you to share the photo with us.


Cher