Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency White House Gardens 20240713

Our final panel, the white house gardens today, features speakers with lived experiences working in and around the gardens of the white house. We will hear from dr. Susan, programs manager for the u. S. Botanic garden, jim adams, horticultural manager from the United States botanic garden, and jim mcdaniel, board of directors, like our previous panel, we will hear three short presentations and then our panelists will have a short conversation moderated by dr. Chapelle. Please join me in welcoming our speakers. [applause] thank you, it is an honor to be here today to speak with you about white house gardens. Both of our other panelist our named jim and both worked on white house gardens. At the end am going to let you ask questions. We are the last panel of the day and we will finish the discussion by talking about gardens that have been established and modified since the kennedy administration. So from the Johnson Administration on. In many different ways, the white house gardens have been inspired and used. The start out by talking about garden trends and movements that have inspired and influenced the development of the white house gardens and grounds. Im also going to talk a little more about first ladies rather than president s because first ladies have had more than influence on the white house grounds. Perhaps more than any other first lady, Lady Bird Johnson was extremely plant focused. It influenced not just the white house but the nation as a whole. When she returned to texas, she established the Wildfire Research center that is now known as the Lady Bird Johnson wildfire center. During her time at the white house, mrs. Johnson was instrumental in establishing the 1960 five hwy beautification act that sought to limit roadside advertisements and green of the interstate highway system across america. It also encouraged funding local efforts to clean up and landscaped green spaces on the sides and medians of roadways. More than 300 conservation laws were passed and over 45 National Parks established during the Johnson Administration, having a large and Lasting Impact on green spaces throughout america. Soon after, she established the wildfire center, and she encouraged an amendment to a 1987 transportation bill that mandated that some federally funded landscaping projects include planting of wildfires, which began the highway at meditations wildflower plans. Lady bird johnsons unification focus not just on the nation by d. C. As well, and she worked to get more flowers on the Capitol Grounds and all around d. C. The First Division monument and president ial park south, west of the white house and south of the Eisenhower Executive Office building, in honors soldiers that fought in world war i, and the large flower bed, it is a giant number one. That is the shape of the First Division patch and that is thanks to her efforts to beautify d. C. And it is maintained by the park service. Johnsons parting gift to future white house residence was the creation of the childrens garden in 1969. It was one of only two new gardens crated since the kennedy administration, the other is the Kitchen Garden created init was one of the Obama Administration. It is meant to be a place of respite for the children in the residence. It features an apple tree to provide a snack the garden visitors, a small fish pond which we saw in this picture here, on the edge, it is in this space. It also has some antique child sized garden furniture. The pathways include the imprint of many generations over the last 50 years of white house residence children and grandchildren. The childrens garden creation came at a time when home gardening was becoming more and more popular in the u. S. Some of you might remember, the first tv gardening personality, i wonderful british woman with a great tv series in the late 1960s called making things grow. There was a burgeoning Environmental Movement as well, making headlines and challenging the way america not about garden to green spaces across the country. There is one of the handprints. Jenna bush when she was a granddaughter. The 1980s and 1990s brought a renewed interest in guarding conservation. The garden conservatory was founded with a mission to save and share gardens across the u. S. For the inspiration of the public. The white use the time didnt make large changes but contribute to the conservation of the existing landscape. Hillary clinton, her largest influence on the white house grounds was in bringing in a series of sculpture exhibits into the Jacqueline Kennedy garden. There were eight exhibits in total, all pieces made by native american artists. Laura bush had a strong interest in gardening. Her influence on the white house grounds was in restoring some of the existing plantings, and replacing them in kind. The same that were traditionally there. The rose garden, the crabapples and boxwoods were replaced, for example. The gardens enjoyed much use by the president , there is president george bush riding his bike across the rose garden. Moving into the late 90s and the 2000, multiple green movements took off across the country. The new york city green streets project took off. In 2000, smart growth america and Streets Coalition were founded. This greening of american streets transformed what were hostile and unattractive intersections into beautiful spaces in which plants were planted. We have some examples for minneapolis to san francisco. This is a great example in new york city of a major transformation of an otherwise, it was a parking lot, with some nice plants. During this time, september 11 also occurred and had a Lasting Impact on the white house grounds. In response to the attacks, pennsylvania avenue north of the white house was closed to vehicle traffic. Thanks to the simultaneous greening of the streets of America Movement and the vision of wellknown a wellknown Landscape Architects, although the street was closed to vehicles, it was made accessible in an unprecedented way to pedestrians. This is what immediately happened after 9 11. They put up a lot of impromptu barricades. This is the result after the redesign efforts. That project was in 2004. This redesign included planting of diseaseresistant american entries all along the street. In the mid to thousands, america had a renewed interest in local food. Food comes from plants, so a connection to the white house grounds. These are some of the books published at the time, encouraging people to grow your foods in cities, to go to farmers markets. From the mid1990s until 2010, the number of farmers markets across the country increased twofold. Basically double the number of farmers markets in the u. S. In 2010 compared to 15 years earlier. Is part of the inspiration for the other new garden in the white house grounds since the kennedy administration, the Kitchen Garden. It will be the focus of the next talk, jen adams will give you the whole story. He helped maintain it for many years. The white house grounds have been a place of reflection and the people who live in the white house and the American People and their creativity. The landscape used by the first family and enjoyed by the public, although i will say not quite today to the extent it was in this picture in 1927. You can see people are running amok on the grounds, i would say. Still today, the grounds host many public events, including tourists, and of course the easter egg role. Roll. I will introduce jim adams to talk to you about the white house Kitchen Garden. [applause] thank you very much, susan. All right. That is not my slide. There we go. While we are waiting. As i was introduced, i currently work at the u. S. Botanic garden and i did have the honor as serving as the supervisor of horticultural on the white house grounds for two years. I started just after the Obama Administration started and the beginning of the trump administration. I can speak a little bit about this. The white house grounds as mentioned today is a Historic Cultural Landscape and maintained by the National Park service. It is very different from most Historic Cultural Landscapes. Most of those, they mark a certain time. It is maintained to look like that telling that time. The National Park service does that until they are told otherwise. It is still the backyard of the president and his family, and as susan said, the last major time this happened was in 1969 the introduction of the childrens garden of the Johnson Administration. The National Park Service Works closely with the first family to give them what they need, whether it be a longterm project or shortterm event or projects, the park Service Works with them to make sure the needs are met. In 2009 after the Obama Administration started, mrs. Obama came to the National Park service and said, i would like to put in a Kitchen Garden and can i do this . She was told yes, she can do this, this is her grounds. In 2009, mrs. Obama started the white house Kitchen Garden because she really wanted to start a conversation, a National Conversation on nutrition and childrens health. This garden was started a year before, it was the basis of her signature lets move program. I will tell you a little bit about my experience in the garden and how the previous first lady would work and have events in the garden. The gardening started every year in the spring, where she would come out with schoolkids and they would plant spring vegetables. Here is a school group that came out and she really wanted the kids to do the work. Park service staff, First Ladies Office staff, would help set things up, but the kids did the work. As you can see, it wasnt perfect. There are some mismatches, but she didnt care. This is the kids and it is what they are going to do and it will not be perfect, although you would think a garden on the white house grounds would have to be perfect. It was all about the kids. She had a great timeith we kihen they came. This was a spring planting where an entrepreneurial young student snuck a sharpie in in his pocket and after the photograph asked the first lady to sign their tshirts, sisi so she obliged. Sometimes she would invite Celebrity Chefs and other people to help with this. Here is rachael ray at one of the Spring Garden plantings. The garden group throughout the year, the garden grows throughout the year. The late planning was in late march and early april. Spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and it would grow through the spring and be lush throughout the year. At the end of the spring term, we would guess when we would have the biggest harvest, she would have a garden harvest. Schoolkids would come in and harvest the spring vegetables, dig up the root vegetables, and have a cooking event. They would learn what to do with the produce. The summer garden was not so formal in its planting. Not everything right and at the same time, so as it ripened we would plant the summer garden. The first lady did a planting at one time with some native american tribes and did a Three Sisters garden with corn, beans, and squash. The court actually was the poles for the beans to grow up and the beans had nitrogen to help the corn grown, and the squash helped kill any weeds. The garden thrived all summer and group nice and lush. When people ask me about my tenure at the white house they say, what was it like . It is the highest pressure garden job you can imagine. [laughter] you are always on. To have a vegetable garden like this, it was a program of the first lady, of her office, and we assisted with it, that it always had to look good. You never knew when the president was going to walk down with a guest, or after you left at night, what the first family was going to do down there. It grew through the summer with all the good summer vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, all of those nice things. Lots of greens. We also tried to make it fun. The First Ladies Office the first lady really wanted it to be accessible to people. She didnt want to make it too white house, not like something anybody could not do at home. So you see in the pictures, wooden edges, a simple mulch pass. But also some of the first ladys employees wanted to make it fun and not boring. What can we do to keep especially kids interest . So we tried to grow fun things like peanuts. We grew peanuts several years. Long beans long noodle beans. Several years we grew papaya in pots. There were a few permanent plantings, and we still are, i talk in the past because of my time working there. There is an herb bed used by white house chefs. There was a perennial herb bed always there for use yearround. Chives, rosemary, thyme. It started as one bed and ended up as two. A grew to be about 1700 square feet by the time the administration it was important for mrs. Obama to honor Thomas Jeffersons agricultural legacy. Plants that were grown at monticello during Thomas Jeffersons time. This is one of her favorite quotes by Thomas Jefferson that always graced the garden. This is a sign we kept in the jefferson beds the whole time. How did we decide what to grow . It was easy. What the first family ate. We would work with the white house chefs. We helped out the first ladys office to help make this happen and bishops would harvest throughout the year. And the chefs would harvest throughout the year. All kinds of things all through the fall we helped provide. For the first familys private meals, but these were tomatoes and radishes, it was a vegetable kebab at one of the congressional picnics. I think this was 2015. Also the things they couldnt use some the white house chefs would process them for later use, and Everything Else was donated to a local soup kitchen. At the end of the summer, the first lady would have another gathering of schoolkids. They would come out with the white house chefs and they would prepare the vegetables the kids harvested and they would make a lunch and everyone would enjoy. The garden was also, as i said, you never knew who was coming down. There were several times we were working that the president would walk down with someone and show off the Kitchen Garden. You did not know who the guests were they were bringing down. This was the last state arrival of the Obama Administration, for italy. This is the first lady of italy, who mrs. Obama gave a tour of the renovated Kitchen Garden in 2016. I was lucky enough to join the tour. Here they are pointing out new additions to the garden. As we were walking through, the first lady of italy had never seen a yellow tomato before. Which is a white house favorite. They are some gold sun gold, they are delicious bundles of sweetness. We picked a handful and we all shared a handful of tomatoes. Maybe they can put that on my tombstone. [laughter] as i said, this is taking care of by the National Park service, that no one does this alone. This was a project driven by the first lady and her office and staff and the director of lets move and white house chefs. The National Park service staff, because they do take part of the horticultural assets of the white house, they are the daily tear figures caretakers of the garden. There are also volunteers. Mrs. Obama wanted it to be a group effort so volunteers came in at least once a week, big groups, sometimes smaller groups and single people. They would do things like like weed and cultivate and harvest. This was an amazing tomato harvest, 74 pounds of tomatoes one summer day. They do a lot of harvesting and take it up to the prepared to the kitchen to prepare it. The garden has been a continual operation since april 2009. It grows through the winter. In the winter, there are covers put on. Delicious cold season vegetables are grown like spinach, lots of greens among broccoli, cauliflower, things like that. A grows through all of the winter snowstorms. We get 22 inches of snow and people are digging these out so they dont collapse. The garden has been in continual operation ever since. When mrs. Obama put in the garden, it was important for her to have a beehive. This was the first beehive on the white house grounds ever. It has been mentioned in some of the previous vegetable gardens in the past, but this is the first beehive. In 2014 after an executive order on pollinators, the park service was asked to put in a pollinator garvin. Garden. We worked with the first ladys office, and the National Park service put in this pollinator garden. The focus is midatlantic natives to support our native pollinators as well as honeybees. That was planted in a spring planting in 2014. There is beau to give us a hand. The first lady got help from schoolchildren as well. It is a nice showpiece. As i said, the garden grew over the years. In 2016 when mrs. Obama realized she was leaving, she really wanted to make the garden more permanent. Like i said, it was always meant to be something the American Public can relate to. Now she was thinking this garden could be here long time. We did not know who the next administration was. They could tear it out or keep it, but she wanted to make sure it had an important importance. So some of the elements that were there, a small picnic table and the paths were taken, and a patio was designed by architect students at the university of virginia and a large patio was put in so it could be enjoyed. Some permanent paths and a beautiful arbor made by students at the university of virginia. A dedication stone and furniture, and designed furniture from the students from university of virginia. So it could have the presence of being at the white house and have a real beauty to it. It was dedicated by the first lady in october 2016, and with every good white house dedication, there is a nice party. There was a nice party with it. The last part was bittersweet for everybody, not knowing where it was going. It was quite a fun time. Several celebrities came. Here is al roker picking beans with schoolkids. And the big guy came out, president obama came out, this was the first time he came to a garden event. He always said the first lady drove it, so he had never been to a planting or harvest before. He came out to see what it was about and she was able to show off the improvements to the president. The last photo of the last harvest in that administration. Just like the other gardens around the white house, it was picked up by the next administration. Mrs. Trump in september 2016 continued the tradition with a large harvest and a planting for the fall and winter garden. It was picked up for the next administration and the next folks to take it over. Thank you. [applause] it is such a pleasure to join you today to explore the rich history and variety of the white house gardens and grounds. As all of you of heard during the day today, all of you have heard during the day today, the white house serves as an office, museum, and world stage. Its gardens echo all of those roles. It has provided over 200 years of refuge for president s and their families, a dignified setting for the executive branch, a special venue where the public can connect with the white house and its history, and a state for stage for world events. The acreage contains more than 500 trees, some of which were planted by and commemorated by former president s. There also garns informal spaces like the childrens garden and the Kitchen Garden, and recreational spaces like the tennis court, swimming pool, horseshoe pitch, and putting green. And places like amy carters greenhouse. As we ve learned during todays presentation, president ial involvement in the design and planting of the white house gardens goes back to George Washingtons selection of the site for the president s house in 1790. The original 82 acre plot was larger than most American Farms at the time. Included what is todays lafayette park, the what has grounds, and white house grounds, and more. It remains ground today with monuments, parks, and the potomac in the distance. President s continue to make their mark on the landscape throughout the history of the white house. Many president s have taken a personal interest in the landscape as if it were their own backyard. Some president s approach regarding the grounds gardens and grounds with unique skill. Jimmy carter had an engineering background, which he used to design a treehouse for 10yearold amy in 1977. The National Park service built it to present cartons president carters specifications on the southwest long. It was freestanding so there was no impact on the cedar. Later in the carter administration, the park service had determined a mntence structure near the tennis court had to be demolished. It was originally a pony shed for the kennedy childrens pony macaroni. It was no longer usable. The replacement rolling would require the removal of a tree that was not historically significant. President carter asked if the new building could be reoriented to save the tree. We took a second look at the design but decided it was more efficient to remove the tree because the foundation would impact the root system even if we shifted the building a little. So the surveyor stakes relate out and excavation was set to begin. On the morning the construction crew arrived, they found the stakes have been moved during the night. When i questioned the chief usher about this, he did some checking and told me present carter had gone out the evening before with blueprints in hand and had moved the foundation outline to avoid the tree. Obviously we built the building according to the president s layout and the tree survived. On may 24, 1973, president Richard Nixon welcomed 591 prisoners of war recently released by North Vietnam at a gala dinner on the south wall lawn. It was the largest sit down dinner ever at the white house. Unfortunate, washington, d c washington, d. C. Was deluged by rain before for the event. The lawn was a sopping turf. We tried every measure possible to dry out the ground. We brought in powerful blowers, thousands of darts of burlap and even dug a trench around the perimeter of the tent to try and drain the area. I remember feeling so bad for the women whose high heels sank into the mud as they walked from the southport coto the south portico to the tent. After working long hours to try and try out the area, we had to come in and read about acres of waterlogged turf and resell it and resod the turf. Consider 30,000 pairs of feet scrambling over the lawn on the monday after easter each year. In the 1870s after congress complained about little feet ruining the grass at the u. S. Capitol, president hayes invited children to come to the white house to roll easter eggs. For many years it was like a small country fair attended mostly by youngsters. During the reagan administration, the easter egg roll was expanded to include celebrities, stage performers, and a ticket lottery system to handle the crowds. It grew to more than 35,000 attendees. It takes a major effort immediately afterwards to repair and refresh the grounds so the landscape looks good for official events and the Spring Garden tour usually held a week or two later. Sometis access to thndsou is not planned. On september 13, 19 94 at 2 00 a. M. , a small singleengine plane attended a surprise landing on the south ln that the pilot had not done his homework. The day before, grounds crews had installed bleachers on the south one in preparation for an event, leaving no landing acesp for the plane. Because he had cut his engine while gliding from the Washington Monument to the white house, he could not pull up as a last minute, so the plane crashed into the Jackson Magnolia and came to rest against the south wall of the residence. The pilot was killed. Fortunately, the thick sandstone walls of the building withstood the impact. The camp david accords were the result of 13 days of intense private negotiations between the egyptian president and israeli Prime Minister. It was facilitated by president jimmy carter in 1978. The actual peace treaty, however, was assigned the following year on the north lawn of the white house. Weather is always a facto with outdoors offense, as many of you who have planned or attended outdoor weddings can attest to it. 1976, a steamy summer day, a tent had been erected for a dinner with Queen Elizabeth ii. She had accepted an invitation to celebrate the nations bicentennial at the white house. Anticipating the need for air conditioning in the tent, the chief usher asked the military to bring in field ac units. As they were cranked up for testing that morning, all of the military personnel donned heavyduty attenuators like you would see on the flight crew of an aircraft carrier. Once the generators came up to full power, it was like a 747 taking off. This would never do. The military was called off and a couple of enterprising park Service Engineers ran a chilled water linthroh the st wing offices and jury rigged to cool the tent. After a thunderstorm knocked out television cameras, the light coverage was not the best, but they did capture the queen dancing with the president to the tune of the lady is a tramp. [laughter] certainly an unfortunate choice by the band, but something we can laugh about today. For two centuries, the white house gardens and grounds, as you have learned from all of the speakers today, have served as family space, hosted official and public ceremonies, and world events, and they still serve in those roles. Over the last 30plus years, a new dimension has emerged, that of a highsecurity compound. After the bombing of the Marine Barracks in lebanon in 1983, a series of barrier walls and planters were constructed as temporary measures to prevent the penetration of the fence line by bomb laden trucks. This bought time while Landscape Architects and Security Specialists could design a more permanent solution that fit within historic landscape design. The goal was always to achieve a balance between physical security measures, respect for the historic landscape, and Public Access. With subsequent terrorist threats and acts, more security measures were overlaid onto the site. The next iteration of physical security will be raising the height of the fence around the 18 acres and grounds. The current design calls for offense twice the height of the existing seven foot steel fence. Construction is set to begin this summer. Preventative measures are necessary. Balance between physical security, respect for the historical landscape, and Public Access can be achieved. In 2000, 12 agencies led by the National Park service, produced and approved a conference of designed plan design plan for the white house and president s park. It was the First Comprehensive design plan for the entire president s park since its initial cladding. It includes guidelines for the management and developing of the white house grounds into the future, allowing this plan to influence decisions on security and the filament will ensure the integrity of this special space for years to come. Thank you again for the opportunity shato a few of the many stories from the white house grounds. Special place is a mirror of the American Experience and make it always be that way. [applause] all right. We are going to do this panel a little differently. Im going to open it up for q a. You had an opportunity this morning to ask questions and there were so many questions, lets give another opportunity to do that. Are there any questions . There is a microphone coming your way. I was unclear about where the vegetable garden, the Kitchen Garden is. On the south grounds. The Southwest Corner of the grounds. You cant go along e street anymore, at the south fence line looking in, it would be to your left. It was important to the first lady to make sure the garden was seen for Public Access. But now you have to be on the left side of history, so it is a little far but you can see it from a distance. They will bring you a microphone. Is there or has there ever been a Cutting Garden for all of the fabulous flor arrangements done in the white house . There has been a greenhouse up on the roof level, and in that greenhouse, there have been different types of plants. Sometimes there have been roses and plants we use for cutting. There were also some bonsai up there for a while. I am not sure it is still there, but for many years, just a small greenhouse up there for family use. I just want to say, going back to the tour, if you take the tour in october, on the tour, you line up to see the obama garden. A wonderful time. What i want to ask you, that the students at the university of virginia, is there a record of the design drawings . Or is there something archival we can see . At the National Park foundation. You can apply to get a copy . Can you tell us about some of the older trees of note on the grounds aside from the Jackson Magnolia . Yes. Sure. As jonathan talked about earlier, i think the most special one is the one planted by mrs. Cleveland that goes back to the 1870s, a japanese maple. It is often overshadowed by the Jackson Magnolia. The oldest known one on the grounds and it is a beautiful plant. There is also there is actually others that are not president ial. There is a blue atlas cedar where jimmy carters treehouse was on the south grounds. We dont know how old is, it predates any records. Also one of my favorites the common name, do you know . It is on the west side, the West Jefferson mount. Again, it predates records, but it is a plant native, it is in the same family of witch hazel and it blooms in the middle of the winter. It has these dark, velvety buds that open up to a maroon flower. They are small but beautiful. In january or february, you will take anything you can get. It is a huge tree. It is a beautiful tree. Not a president ial, that we know. There are some on the north grounds too, a white oak planted by franklin d roosevelt. That one doesnt have the size you would expect, it is a very slowgrowing tree, but very healthy. I dont see any reason why it wont grow to be a beautiful old tree. Those on the north groundstop get as much attention as the south grounds. Because you see those on the garden tors. Tours. One is not really a tree, the truman boxwood on the north portico. I remember every four years we would have a fight with the press covering the inauguration who wanted to trim back the boxwood to get better views of the north front of the house. I am also old enough to remove or the adams elm and to really miss that tree. I felt like it was a friend. Although it was a dying friend, i had watched it over the years slowly lose limb after limit until finally there wasnt enough left to keep it going. I miss that old tree. As a gardener, ive always wondered, how do you keep the rabbits, squirrels, and other critters out of the that vegetable garden and flowers . At the white house, we didnt have to. The biggest problem we had with squirrels. There were no rabbits or dear deer because of the fence. Squirrels were the biggest problem. We were very lucky in that respect. I garden in the city, so i dont have rabbits. I remember president reagan was our worst enemy with squirrels because when he would go to camp david, he would load up his pockets with acorns and bring them back and scatter them on the portico outside the oval office. We were at one point transplanting squirrels into the park and he is encouraging them to move back in. [laughter] everything at the white house is a big deal. Even the squirrels. One time there was a tree that had come down and half of it had come and we had to remove the rest and we cut it out and came across a squirrel nest. I asked an employ to discreetly take it to city wildlife. They found out where they were from and the next day i read about in the paper and i got a call from my boss asking me what had happened and why. So yeah, different kinds of gardening. Is a resident of 6000 pennsylvania avenue said what do we do next, what would you advise him . Hmm. When you work there, it is their agenda. You have to ask a lot of questions to find out what is important to them. What do they want to make an impact . As we learned today, people will be hashing this over for hundreds of years. What is important to you and where do you want to make an impact, and we will help you do that. And i think documentation is important. Each administration has a responsibility to carefully document changes in the landscape for the future. Obviously there has to be balance. The building itself and the grounds have to function as a home, and office, a museum, and a stage. The best way to achieve that balance is through the relationships of all of the entities there. The family, the staff, the outside agencies. When those relationships are intact and there is respect between those relationships, then you have the place working the way it should. But documentation is important. I think generations to come, people need to have the ability to look back and see where the Kitchen Garden was, what was grown there, where trees were removed and replaced, and see how the design evolved over the years and keep a good record of that. Ive had the honor of volunteering for the spring tauris, and people arso amazed at the flowers. Some people go were they read last year red last year . Do they rotate out and who decides on what colors . Like the annuals planted in the rose garden and is garden are decided by the National Park service. Some administrations have much more weight in that than others. There have been some traditional things. Red and yellow have been traditional colors in the fountain. Along with the superintendent of groundsmr. Williams was the last one, and dale haney is the current one. The park service along with the ushers office. Decisions made in cooperation for the grounds. Like the vegetables in the Kitchen Garden, what the white house chefs, they would say cucumbers but it was tough to find something that would work for the garden. Its a collaboration. History has a lot to say about colors and types of plants and where they are and how many. The white house has an institution white house as an institution has an almost human ability to influence the people who live there and work there, and you tend to want to do what has worked in the past. A funny story about tulips, one Spring Garden tour during the nixon administration, the gardens and grounds were open and people were coming through. It had been going maybe half an hour. The president was called back for an emergency. For whatever reason, the decision was made to land a helicopter on the south lawn. We had to usher all of the people off the grounds. The helicopter came in to low too low and blue every pedal off of every tulip. So when the people came back, there were no flowers. [laughter] right in the middle. Then one over on the side. Thank you. Have the grounds at the white house gone mostly organic in its maintenance . No, they are maintained there is an ipm program where things are looked at and evaluated. The white house Kitchen Garden, it was always important when i worked there for mrs. Obama, not to call it an organic garden, because there is a lot of baggage with that, and also to be Certified Organic by usda is a big deal. But we did garden Kitchen Garden organically. We did not use synthetic has decides or fertilizers. But the white house grounds, as was alluded to, after you have had three 5000 people walking on your turf and two weeks later you could have stayed arrivals or garden tours, you have to use synthetic fertilizers. Like any landscape, pest and disease problems come up. If they are monitored properly, you make the right decision of what to use and how. Again it comes back to balance. It is not a pure environment. It is an environment that has to serve a lot of different purposes. It has to look good for events as a backdrop. I remember a state dinner one time, the Prime Minister of japan, and it was the dead of winter but they wanted to have cherry trees in bloom. For surely, we knew several months in advance, so we got a couple dozen cherry trees out to the greenhouse and forced them. They were in full bloom for the japanese Prime Minister. It is a garden, a landscape, a whole philosophy of balance. Approximately when are the garden chores during the year garden tours durinthe ar . G there is usually a garden tour, it does vary from administration to administration, but typically in april and october. Those are announced by the white house. Several weeks in advance. But i know in bush 43s administration, it were monthly garden chores tours. There was one day during the month they were open. Typically right now, they have been april and october. Any other questions . I have a final question. It is such a unique landscape and an immense responsibility and such a highpressure job. I am wondering how you managed the balance between maintaining a historic landscape that is important to many americans, and important globally, with i dont want to say the whims of, but the interests of the first family and how they will use the space . You never lose sight of the design. You have a record of the landscape design, the product of the best designers over history, whether it is the olmsteads or mrs. Mellon, and you have that to go back to after changes have been made. That was our philosophy when i was there, was always maintain a baseline of professional Landscape Architecture and history. Never lose sight of that, so that when changes are made depending on particular administrations or events, you can always reset. Yeah. Go back to history, go to what works. You make it look good for the folks that are there at that stage, and for that balance. You do what it takes to make the balance and that is what we did. And good people. Always have good people in the picture, people like jim. [applause] never be afraid to go out to the best expertise you can find. [applause] always remember the people doing the day in and day out work, the gardeners and laborers are very special people. They have high standards to maintain and a lot of pressure because what they are doing, whether it is deadheading roses or cutting grass, so many people are looking at what they are doing, and they constantly are in the background of tv cameras and so forth. Those folks deserve a lot of credit for their daytoday, monday and work. Absolutely. [applause] thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you, susan, jim, and jim. That brings our wonderful day to a close. I would like to thank our presenters and our folks from oak Spring Garden foundation who were with us today, and we look forward to having you all involved with and attending anything we do here at the White House Historical association. We really appreciate your support and participation in our events. It is now my privilege to invite you to the courtyard where we will have a reception to end the day. Thank you very much. [applause] i would be remiss if i did not recognize my great friend, colleague, the best present of the best World Affairs council in the United States