The Lower Garden, in George Washington's Mount Vernon
The Lower Garden at Mount Vernon is a classic, English-style potager, which stole my heart. The carefully recreated kitchen garden has been called one of the most noteworthy Colonial Revival gardens in the United States.
Neatly mowed grass paths travel by orderly planted lettuces, lavenders, chives, espaliered trees and other herbs and vegetables found during the colonial era. This garden provided food for President Washington and his family, as well as many guests and dignitaries. Learn more about cooking at Mount Vernon.
Located near the stables, the kitchen garden received plenty of well-aged animal manure, which added valuable organic matter and nutrients to the soil.
Just as medieval gardeners in Europe did, Mount Vernon espaliered apples and other fruit trees on fences and walls to save space and create an attractive appearance. Apples, along with cherries and other fruits, were used in pies, tarts and other delicious desserts.
Cabbage and rosemary are just a few foods enjoyed at Mount Vernon. The cistern (one of several) helped to collect water for irrigating the garden during dry periods. A modern-day rain barrel would function well today in our own gardens.
Cabbages were an important, nutrient-rich food, eaten especially during the colder months. The plant is attractive, as well as healthy and delicious.
Flowering chives and trellised peas create colorful accents in George and Martha Washington’s kitchen garden. The entire sunny garden is enclosed with a brick wall and white picket fence to keep animals out.
Peas provide edible and ornamental value to any sunny garden. These are trellised on old sticks found on the Mount Vernon property.
Artichokes were one of President Washington’s favorite foods. Also grown were kale, lettuce and lavender, as shown here. [Source]
National Review Online has an interesting article titled Vacations and Vocations. The paragraph below is an excerpt:
Senator Paul will come out of his vacation [performing eye surgery on poor children in Guatemala] looking pretty good. Given the political class’s endless appetite for self-serving theater, I found myself wondering why President Obama, Mrs. Clinton, or Vice President Biden did not choose to spend their vacations in a similar way, offering to put their skills and abilities to use on behalf of others. And then I realized that this was a deeply stupid question on my part.How about previous presidents?
What the hell would they do?
George Washington was a farmer who:
...devoted his life to the improvement of American agriculture. While his initial interest in farming was driven by his own needs to earn a living and improve Mount Vernon, in later years Washington realized his leadership and experimentation could assist all American farmers. Initially growing tobacco as his cash crop, Washington soon realized that tobacco was not sustainable and he switched to grains, particularly wheat as a cash crop in 1766. Washington read the latest works on agriculture and implemented the new husbandry methods using a variety of fertilization methods and crop rotation plans on his five farms. [Source]President Reagan worked in many, often low-level, acting jobs:
1932: Sports broadcaster for WOC, Davenport, Iowa.
1933: Play-by-play radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs games at WHO in Des Moines, Iowa.
1937: Covered the Cubs Spring Training Camp in Catalina Island, California
1937: Actor with seven-year contract for Warner Brothers, Hollywood, California
1940: Actor as Notre Dame football legend George Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne, All American. The role earns Reagan the nickname "the Gipper."
1942: Active duty in the Army Air Force. He is assigned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California, where he makes over 400 training films.
1945: Actor with a 20-year career, making 53 motion pictures and one television movie.
1947: President of the Screen Actors Guild for five consecutive terms,
1947: Testifies before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The hearings result in the blacklising of many writers and directors thought to have ties to the Communist Party.
1954: Product spokesman for General Electric, while touring the country.
Oct. 27, 1964: Gives a televised speech, called "A Time for Choosing," launching his political career.
Sources:
- The Life of Ronald Reagan: A Timeline
- Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan, By William E. Pemberton
One could say that President Reagan was already at an age for a true retirement at 78 when he left the presidency, and his post-presidency activities of working on his memoirs and establishing the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, are indeed legitimate and worthwhile. But what about these law-trained politicians like Obama and Clinton (Mr. and Mrs.), who have nothing substantial to fall back on when they "retired" at much earlier ages. Hillary is now 66 - a full ten years younger than Reagan when he worked on his library - and who has failed endeavors to refer to after Bill's presidency. Bill left at 55, and he has also started the now apparently requisite "center and library" but nothing substantial has come out of those endeavors, other than to serve as podiums from which to endorse his wife's various political projects. Obama will also be 55 when he retires from his post. He will probably also start some kind of center, which will then leave him plenty of time to concentrate on other activities. And I doubt that Michelle is running for any kind of post.
It is no wonder, then, that they make sure that their nurtured and spoiled lives and lifestyles do not end when they leave office.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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