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 ParkService 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