THE COASTAL GARDENER:

Let’s be sure — this is a gardening column, not a political column.

But, whatever your politics, gardeners across the country are celebrating last Friday’s groundbreaking of an organic vegetable garden at the White House.

On the first day of spring, First Lady Michelle Obama put her shovel into the ground and removed a small piece of lawn. The White House vegetable garden was begun.

With the help of about 25 fifth-graders from a local elementary school, a portion of the south lawn of the White House was removed.

She started the new garden as part of her agenda to promote better eating habits for American families, to show the importance of locally grown fruits and vegetables and to help Americans better understand where their food comes from.

The Obamas plan to utilize the vegetables harvested as a main source of produce for their meals.

Even the White House chefs were involved in the selection of the vegetables to be grown.

Proving that a small kitchen garden can easily provide delicious, organic, locally grown produce should inspire others to take up the task as well.

Certainly, right here in Orange County, edible gardening has become one of the fastest-growing activities for the home gardener.

The White House garden is modest in size. At 1,100 square feet it is comparable to what some homeowners may be able to replicate at their own house.

The new garden will be visible from the street, where it’s rumored that even the president himself will occasionally do a little weeding and watering.

The tradition of a White House vegetable garden dates back to almost 1800 when President John Adams planted the first garden.

But, for many years, the idea of growing vegetables at the White House had fallen out of favor, the last installation being Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden during World War II.

Advocates of the White House garden apparently have found an ally in First Lady Michelle Obama.

One of her early official appearances was at the Department of Agriculture, where she told staff she was a “big believer” in community gardens.

With urging from the food community, including chef and locally-grown food activist Alice Waters and author Michael Pollan, and circulation of a petition signed by more than 100,000 people worldwide, the administration announced its plans for the new White House garden.

The garden will grow dozens of vegetables, berries and herbs and will be maintained organically. The collection of crops, a wish list from White House kitchen staff, will include lettuces, squash, peas, broccoli, carrots, fennel, rhubarb, cucumbers and sweet and hot peppers.

White House chefs will use the produce to prepare meals for the first family. A portion of the harvest will be also donated to Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen near the White House. As a signal of concern for the nation’s current honeybee crisis, there will also be a bee hive established near the garden to help with the pollination of the crops.

“I’ve been able to have my kids eat so many different things that they would have never touched if we bought it at a store,” said First Lady Michelle Obama. “Because they met the farmer that grew it or they saw how it was grown, they were curious about it and they tried it. And usually they liked it, and they’d eat more and more of it.”

Last month, she invited local culinary students to the White House kitchen, where she talked about her own challenges trying to persuade her children to eat vegetables. No matter what you do, she said, “sometimes kids are like, ‘It’s green!’ ”

Coincidentally, last week I started my summer vegetables in my own small vegetable garden; two varieties of cucumbers, three beans including my favorite haricot verts, golden turnips, okra, Swiss chard, tomatoes, radishes, peppers, eggplants, squash, carrots and corn.

If you haven’t started you own home edible garden, perhaps now is the time.

ASK RON

Question: Occasionally I see a few mushrooms in my lawn and planter areas. Are they harmful? What should I do?

Nancy

Costa Mesa

Answer: Mushrooms are merely a brief above-ground growth stage of fungus organisms living in soil. Some fungi live on dead roots, or fine particles of organic matter. Others live in harmony with tree roots, assisting in the uptake of water and nutrients. The vast majority of fungi are beneficial, a few cause plant disease, but very few. The sudden appearance of mushrooms does not mean there is anything to do; no need to spray. Some people grew up with the belief that mushrooms were somehow bad. If you object to their sprouting in lawns or gardens, use a rake or your shoe to knock them over.

ASK RON your toughest gardening questions, and the expert nursery staff at Roger’s Gardens will come up with an answer. Please include your name, phone number and city, and limit queries to 30 words or fewer. E-mail [email protected], or write to Plant Talk at Roger’s Gardens, 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar, CA 92625.

RON VANDERHOFF is the Nursery Manager at Roger’s Gardens, Corona del Mar