July 6th, 2009

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Here’s a tip from fellow blogger Obama Foodorama: Take a quick eco-detour while visiting the National Mall this summer and check out the USDA’s gardens and garden workshops.

USDA staff will be conducting noontime mini-seminars on Fridays at The People’s Garden, installed outside the Ag Department headquarters. Topics will deal with watering, window gardens, attracting wildlife to the garden and of course, the ever-popular-and-more-work-than-we’d-like-it-to-be composting. You can see the schedule in this USDA press release.

The USDA demo gardens, which Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack had installed this spring, illustrate organic and veggie growing techniques, such the American Indians’ “Three Sisters” method of growing squash, beans and corn symbiotically in a cluster (wherein the beans feed the soil, the corn serves as a climbing pole for the beans etc.) There are porous paving, water recapture and green roof projects; pollinator gardens and bat houses. The overall concept is to nudge Americans into thinking about how their little plot of paradise could be more nature-friendly, and maybe also produce a salad.

Turns out Iowan Vilsack is quite keen on the family food garden idea and, as Steven Colbert would say, So Can You!

Obama Foodorama, btw, is a fun and an fairly exhaustive “daily diary of the Obama foodscape” run by Eddie Gehman Kohan, a food writer and self-described “ag policy wonk.” We just love to see what the first family is munching on, and we’re thrilled they’re growing some of their own too.

Now if we could just get the U.S. Park Service over here to help pick the cow peas.

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