Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency White House Gardens 20240713

During their time at the white house. This is part of a daylong symposium by the White House Television a sobriety iati association. Our final panel, the white house gardens today. Features speakers with lived experiences working in and around the gardens of the white housz. We will hear from in this order Deputy Director of science and Program Director for the u. S. Botanic garden. Jim adams, hortontuckericulture manager. And jim, white house board of directors and formerly park service. Like our Previous Panel well hear three short presentations and then a conversation will be moderated by dr. Pell. Well leave time at the end for open q a with the audience. Please join me in welcoming our speakers. [ applause ] thanks so much. Its an honor to be here today to speak with you all about white house gardens. Both of our jims on the panel are named jim and both actually worked at the white house so well run the panel differently at the end. I will open it up for questions. I feel its a unique opportunity to ask questions to those who worked on the white house grounds. Were the last panel, were going to talk about gardens that have been established and modified from Johnson Administration and on. The last 50 years. In many different ways white house gardens have been inspired and also used. I will start off the panel by talking about some of the garden trends and other movement thats inspired the development of the white house grounds. And well talk about first ladies which have had the biggest influence on the white house grounds. Perhaps more than any other first lady, lady johnson was really focused on the white house grounds and when she returned to texas she established National Wild Flower Center and it the safe Botanic Garden of texas. During her time at the white house mrs. Johnson was instrumental in establishing the 1965 highway beautification act to clean up the road sides of the interstate highway system across america. The act also encouraged scenic enhancement by funding to clean landscapes and medians and sides of the road ways. More than 300 conservation laws were passed and 45 parks established during the Johnson Administration having a lasting and large impact on the green spaces in america. Soon after shed establish the Wild Flower Center and added an a amendment to 1987 transportation bill mandated that some landscaping projects including the protection of wild flower thus beginning her program. Her Beautification Program focused on not just the nation but on d. C. As well and she worked to get more flowers planted on the capital grounds and around the district of columbia. The First Division monument in President Park south just west of the white house, south of the Eisenhower Executive Office building. It houses the u. S. Army is o soldiers that fought in world war i, the giant one is in thanks to the lady johnsons effort to beauty d. C. And remains in place today and maintained by the National Park service of course. The johnson parting gift was a creation of the childrens garden in 1969. One of two new white house gardens s the childrens garden is meant to be a respite, a place of exploration and reflection by the children and grand children of whithe white house residents. It has a planted tree, a small fish pond, last picture on the edge, sort of right in this space here, and it also has some antique childsize garden furniture. And the pathways actually include the imprints of many generations over the last 50 years of white house residents, children, and grandchildren. The childrens garden creation came at a time when home gardening was becoming more and more popular in the United States, when some of you may have remembered the first tv garden personality carus o had a great series in the 60s called making things throw grow and burgeoning Environmental Movement was challenging the way we think about gardens and green spaces across the country. You can see one of those hand prints. Says jenna bush when she was a granddaughter before she was daughter of the president. The 1980s and 90s brought renewed interest in garden conservation across the country, new organization garden on conservancy in place today with a mission to save and share garden inspiration with the public and they did not make large changes to the grounds but really contributed to the conservation and preservation of existing land skascapelandscape. Hillary Clint Clinton brought in a sculpture exhibits, eight in total, one of which featured all pieces made by american inland yan indian artists. Laura bush like her motherinlaw had a strong interest in gardening and her influence on the white house grounds was in restoring some of the existing planting. Replacing the plantings in kind, so the rose garden for example, the crab apple and box woods were replaced and the trees in the east garden were replaced. The gardens were much used by the president. This is president george bush riding his bike across the rose garden. So moving into the late 90s and 2000s multiple greening movements took off across the country. New york city green Street Program established in 1996. Transforming city streets into pedestrian friendly green spaces. In 2000 smart america and National Coalition founded to transform what were hostile, unattractive intersections, into really beautiful spaces in which plants were also planted, from minneapolis to San Francisco across the country. This is a great example in new york city of a major transformation of a parking lot into a nice space with lots of planters with plants. And of course during this time period the attacks of september 11th also occurred and had a lasting and large impact on the white house grounds. The pennsylvania avenue north of the white house was closed to vehicle traffic. Thanks to the simultaneous greening of the streets of America Movement and also the vision of wellknown Landscape Architect michael fallkenburg made the streets immediately accessible for pedestrians, they put up barricades and this is the result after the resign efforts in 2004. Here it is. This resign included plantings of diseaseresistant american elm streets on the street. In the 2000, americans had interest in local foods, which come to plants, nice connection to the white house grounds. These books encourage people to grow their own food, source food, go to farmers markets. In mid 1990 to 2010 the number of farmers markets increased twofold, double the number in 2010 compared to 15 years earlier. That of course was part of the inspiration for the other new garden in the white house grounds since the Kennedy Administration that of course is the Kitchen Garden, the focus of the next talk. Jim adams will give you the story about the Kitchen Garden which he helped to maintain for many years. The white house grounds have long been a place of reflection and also of the people who live in the white house and certain of the American People and their creativity. Landscape used by the first family and enjoyed by the public. Maybe not quite today to the extent it was in this picture in 1927. People were running amok id say on the grounds there. But still today the grounds host many public events, including tours and the easter egg roll we heard about today. Without further adieu i will introduce jim adams to talk about the white house kitchen. [ applause ] thank you very much, suzanne. Just, all right. Thats not my slide. Just the green. Okay. So. There we go. While were waiting. So, as i was introduced i currently work at the United States Botanic Garden which suzanne alluded to. I did have the honor of serving as supervisor of hort hort culturehorticulture for just ovt years and i i can speak a little bit about this. The white house ground is historical landscape maintained by the National Park service but is very different than most historical landscapes, where most of those they mark a certain time and its always maintained to look like that time, well, the National Park service does do that until theyre told otherwise, its still the backyard of the president and his family and as suzanne said the last major time this happened was in 1969 with the introduction of the childrens garden by the Johnson Administration. But the National Park Service Works very closely with the ushers office and first family to give them what they need. Whether it be longterm project or shortterm events or projects. The park Service Works guys them to make sure those needs are met. In 2009 after the Obama Administration started mrs. Obama came to the National Park service and said id really like to put in a kitchen guard and can i do this. She was told, yes, she can do this. This is her garden. Her grounds. So in 2009 mrs. Obama started the white house Kitchen Garden because she really wanted to start a National Conversation on nutrition and Childrens Health and so this garden was started a year before and was the basis of her signature lets move program. So im going to 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 garden year started every year in the spring where she would come out and with school kids and theyd plant the spring vegetables. So heres a school group that came out and she really wanted the kids the to do the work park service staff, first lady staff would help to set everything up, but the kids did the work. And as you can see it wasnt perfect. Theres some mismatches there. But she didnt care. This is like, this is the kids. This is what the kids are going to do and its not going to be perfect. Although you would think the garden for the president around the white house grounds would have to be perfect. No. It was all about the kids. And she had a great time with the kid when they came. Actually this was one spring planting where an entrepreneurial young student actually snuck a sharpy in in his pocket and at the end after the photograph asked the first lady to sign their tshirts and she obliged and signed their tshirts. That was pretty clever. And sometimes she would invite Celebrity Chefs and other people to come help with this. Heres rachel ray in one of the Spring Garden plantings. But the garden grew throughout the year. Still grows throughout the year. Spring plantings, always the first planting was late march, early april. Lots of spring vegetables, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, calliflower, carrots, it would grow through the spring and look lush and nice throughout the year. And at the end the spring bead guess when wed guess when we were going to have the biggest harvest shed have a garden harvest and the school kids would come in and harvest the spring vegetables, dig up the root vegetables and then have a cooking event with it. So they would also learn what to do with the produce. The assumer garden the summer garden wasnt as formal because in spring not everything would ripen at the same time. As it ripe end we would plant the summer garden. The first lady did one planting one time with native american tribes and did a Three Sisters garden with corn, bean and squash. So the corn actually was the polls for the beans to grow up. The beans would give nitrogen to help the corn grow. And the squash would grow at the base to shade out and kill any weeds. Yeah, the garden thrived all summer long and grew nice and lush. When people ask about my tenure at the white house they say what was it like. Its the highest pressure gardening job you can imagine. Youre always on. And to have a vegetable garden like this was a program of the first lady of her office, and we assisted with it but we didnt know when the president was going to walk down with the guest or after you left at night what the first family was going to do down there but so it throw u through the summer with all of the good summer vegetables, cucumber, tomato, pepper, eggplant, all those nice things. Lots of greens. We also tried to make it a little bit fun, the first ladys offi office the first lady wanted it to be accessible to people, not too white house, like something people cant do at home. So you saw the pictures, wooden edges. Simple mulch paths. But also the first ladys employees wanted to make it fun not just boring. What can we do to keep kids interest. So when they came down wed try to grow fun things like peanuts, we grew peanuts for several years. Yardlong noodle beans which is an asian bean that can be several yards long. For several years we grew papayas. So just things to get kids attention. There was a few permanent plantings, still are, i talk in the past because of my time working there, but few permanent plantings, this is an herb bed used by the white house staff that was always there for use yearround. Thyme, chievechives, oregano, b. It started out and grew to 1700 square feet by the time the administration left. It was very important for mrs. Obama to honor Thomas Jefferson in his horticulture legacy. It started with one bed and then plants that were grown during Thomas Jeffersons time, this is one of her favorite quotes that always graced the garden. Failure of one thing repaired by the success of another. And instead of one harvest a continued one throughout the year. This sign we kept in the jefferson bed the whole time. How did we decide what to grow . It was easy. What the first family ate. The National Staff would work with the white house staff and what the first family would eat and what they would use for state 50e67events. So we helped out the first ladys office to make this happen and the chefs would come down and harvest throughout the year. Spring, summer, figures, leaks, all kinds of things all through the fall we provide. Yes they were the first familys meal but also these were tomatoes and radish that was at one of the states congressional picnics, i think this was 2015. And also things they couldnt use, either the white house chef process them for later use and Everything Else was given away, donated to a local soup kitchen. At the end of the summer the first lady would have yet another gathering of school kids and theyd come out, the white house chefs would come out as well and help to prepare the vegetables that the kids harvested and theyd make a lunch and everyone would enjoy. The garden is also, as i said, you never noah knew who was frmtz you never knew who was coming down. You never knew the guests were going to be they were bringing down. This was the late dstate arriva for the Obama Administration this is the first lady of italy and here they are pointing out the new additions to the garden. As we walked through the first lady of italy never seen a yellow tomato before, which is one of the white house favorites, its sun gold, theyre delicious yellow bundles of sweetness. She had never seen one so we picked a handful and shared a handful of sun gold tomatoes. Maybe they could put that on my tombstone. But anyway. So, who takes care of this, as i said, this is taken care of by the National Park service but no one does this alone. This was a project driven by the first lady and her office and her staff and the director of lets move and the white house chefs, National Park service staff, because they do take care of the horticulture assets of the white house. They are the daily care takers of the garden but theres also volunteers. Mrs. Obama wanted this to be a volunteer group effort so big groups would come in once a week, sometimes smaller groups of people would come in, and theyd do things like weed and cultivate and prune and then harvest. This was actually an amazing tomato harvest of 74 pounds of tomatoes one summer day. Yeah, they would come in an dodd a lot of harvesting and helped to take it to the kitchen and prepare it. The garden didnt end in the summer. Its been in continual operation since april 2009. It grows through the winter. In the winter, theres row covers put on and low tunnels put on and delicious cold season vegetables are grown in there like spinach. Lots of greens, broccoli, calliflower, things like that, yes it grows through all of the storms, the winter storms, yeah, you get 22 inches of snow, people are out there digging these out so they dont collapse and the garden has been in Continuous Operation since. When mrs. Obama put in the garden it was important for her to have a bee hive this is the first one on the grounds of the white house ever. It has been mentioned about previous vegetable gaddens in the past but this is the first bee hive. In 2014 after executive order on poll nators the National Park service was asked to put in a pollinate garden. So they put in this poll nat yoe orinator garden. And it was planted in spring 2014. Heres bo to give us a hand. The first lady planted this then with the School Children as well. It has turned out to be a beautiful garden ever since. Its a nice show piece on the north side of the Kitchen Garden. As i said the garden grew over the years and in 2016 when mrs. Obama realize shed was leaving, you know, she really wanted to make the garden more permanent. Like i said it was always meant to be something the American Public could relate to but now shes thinking this garden could be here for a long time. We didnt know who the next administration was. They could tear it out. Could keep it. She wanted to make sure it had an importance. The importance of being at the white house. Some of the more simple elements that were there, like a small picnic table in the past were then taken to a large patio, it was designed by the architect students at university of virginia and a large patio was put in so the garden could be enjoyed, some permanent pads, a beautiful arbor made by the students at university of virginia, a dedication stone, and this furniture, this handdesign made furniture by the university of virginia students so that people could actually come and it could have the presence of being at the white house and have a real beauty it to it. It was dedicated by the first lady october 2016 with every good white house dedication theres a nice party with it. And then last harvest i think was bitter sweet for everybody not knowing where it was going. It was quite a fun time. Several celebrities came. Like heres al roker picking beans with some of the school kids and the big guy came out. President obama came out. This was the first time he came to a garden event. The first lady really drove this so he had never been to a planting or harvest so he came out to see what it was all about and she was able to show off the improvements of the garden to the president. The last photo of the last harvest in this administration. But then, just like the other gardens around the white house it was picked up by the next administration. The garden, the day today, the white house serves as a home, office, museum and world stage. Its gardens and grounds echo all of those roles. They have provided over 200 years of refuge for president ials and families. A formal dignified setting for business for the executive branch. A special venue where the public can connect with the white house and its history and a stage for world events. The 18 acres within the white house fence contain more than 500 trees. Some of which were planted by and commemorate former president s. There were also former gardens like the rose garden and Jacqueline Kennedy garden. Informal spaces like the childrens garden and the Kitchen Garden. And theres been recreational spaces like tennis court, swimming pool, horse shoe pitch and putting green and play spaces like amy carters green house. As we learned through todays presentation, president ial involvement in the design and planting of the white house gardens go back to George Washington selection of the site of the president s house in 1790. In original 8 acre this original 82 acre plot included the white house grounds, the eclipse. The distance from north to south remain ground today with monuments and the Potomac River in the distance. Residents continue to make their mark on the landscape throughout the white house. Many have taken a personal interest in the landscape as if it were their own backyard approaching the grounds with unique perimeter and skill. Jimmy carter, for example, had an engineering background which he used to design a tree house for 10yearold amy in 1977. The National Park service built the structure to president carters specifications and installed it on the southwest lawn. It was freestanding so there was no impact on the cedar tree. Later in the Carter Administration the National Park service determined a maintenance structure near the tennis court had to be demolished. It originally served as a pony shed, and many repairs extended its life, but it was no longer usable. The replacement building 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 and we took a second look at the design and decided it was more efficient to remove the tree because of the root systems. So the stakes were laid and excavation was set to begin. On the morning the construction crew arrived they found that the stakes had been moved during the night. When i questioned the chief usher about this, he did some checking and told me that president carter had gone out the evening before with blue prints in hand and moved the foundation outline to avoid the tree. Obviously we built the building according to the president s lay out and the tree survived. On may 24, 1973, president Richard Nixon welcomed 591 wisconsinon prisoners of war recently released by vietnam in a gala dinner on the south lawn, with 1300 guests it was the largest sit down dinner held at the white house. Unfortunately washington, d. C. Was deluged by three days of steady rain just before the event. The south lawn was a stopping sponge of turf. We tried every measure possible to dry out the ground and cover the area under the tent. We brought in powerful flowers and thousands of yards of burrlap and dug a trench around the tent to try to drain the area. I remember feeling so bad for the women whose high heels sank in the mud as they walked to the tent. I also felt worse for the grounds crews who after working long hours to try to dry out the hour had to come in the next morning and rip out acres of waterlog turf and completely resod the south lawn so it would be ready for the next event. The south lawn often takes a beating. Consider 30,000 pairs of feet scrambling all over the lawn on the monday after easter each year. In the 1870s congress complained about little feet ruining the grass at the u. S. Capital and invited local children to come to the white house and roll their easter eggs and this annual event for many years was like a small country fair attended mostly by youngsters and during Reagan Administration it was skmaexpan to include celebrities and stage performers and tickets to handle the crowds, and grew to more than 35,000 attendee as and takes a major effort to repair the grounds so the landscape looks good for official events and the spring tour usually held a week or two later. Sometimes access to the grounds is not planned. On september 13, 1994, at 2 00 a. M. A small single engine plane attempted a surprise landing on the south lawn but the pilot had not done his homework. The day before grounds crews installed bleachers on the south lawn in preparation for the event leaving no landing space for the plane. Because he cut his engine gliding into the white house he couldnt pull up and the plane came to rest against the south wall of the the residents. The pilot Frank Courter 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 egyptian president and israeli Vice President facilitated by carter in 1978, the actual peace treaty however was signed the following year on the north lawn of the white house. The weather is always i factor with outdoor events, as many of you who planned or attended outdoor weddings can attest to. July 7, 1976, was a steamy, hot washington summer day, a tent was erected in the rose garden for a steak dinner with Queen Elizabeth ii to celebrate our nations bi sent tenial in the white house. The chief usher ask the military to bring in field ac units. As they were cranked up for testing this morning all of the military personnel dawned these heavy duty ear a ten uators that you would see on a flight crew at an aircraft carrier. Once the generators came up to full power it was like a 747 taking off. This would never do. So the military was called off and couple enterprising park Service Engineers ran a copper water line through the offices and air cooling system quietly cooled the tenant. An afternoon rain storm knocked out four of Nine Television cameras so the live coverage was not the greatest but they did broadcast 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 Senate guards and grounds as you learned from all of the speakers have served as familys face official and public ceremonies and world events and they still serve in those roles. Over the last 30 plus years a new dimension has emerged, that of a high security compound. After the bombing of the Marine Barracks of lebanon in 1983 a series of barrier walls were krublgt constructed to prevent the penetration of bombladen trucks. This bought time while Landscape Architects and Security Specialists could design a balance between physical security measures and respect for the historic landscape and Public Access. With some subsequent terrorist acts and threats, however, more physical and Operational Security measures were over laid on to 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 a fence that is more than twice the height of the existing sevenfoot 1937 steel fence. Construction is set to begin this summer. Reasonable 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 proved a comprehensive design plan for the white house and president s park. This was the first kpreechbs design plan for the entire president s park since its initial plotting in 1971, it includes guidelines for the management and development of the white house grounds and president s park into the future, allowing this plan to influence todays decision on security and guide decisions on development will ellinsure the integrity of this special place for years to come, it is a mirror of the american experience, may it always be that way. [ applause ] all right. So were going to do this panel a little bit differently as i said earlier and im going to open it up for q a, we had an opportunity to ask great questions, lets give another opportunity to do that. Do we have any questions. Theres a mic coming your way. There you go. Thank you. I was unclear about where the vegetable garden, the Kitchen Garden is. The Kitchen Garden is on the south grounds, in the Southwest Corner of the grounds so, you cant go along e street any more, if you were at the south fence line looking in, it would be to your left. So it was important to the first lady to make sure that the garden was seen for Public Access. But now you have to be actually on the eclipse side of e street so its a little far but you can see it from a distance. Yeah . Theyre going to bring you a mic. One second. Its right there. Is there or has there ever been a Cutting Garden for all of those fabulous floral arrangement thats are done in the white house . S thats are do the white house . S are done in the white house . Are done in the white house . There has been a green house on the roof level. And in that green house there have been different types of plants. Sometimes they have been roses and other plants that were used for cuttings. There also was some bonsai up there for a while. Im not sure its still there. But for many years it was just a small green house up there for family use. Firstly, i just want to say, going back to the tour, if you take the tour in october, on the tour, you do line up to see the obama garden, sounds like a wonderful time. I want to go back to the students of the university of virginia, is there a solid record of the design drawings . Or some archive available that one could see . At the National Park foundation. You can apply to get a copy of that . Yep. Okay. Thank you. Can you tell us about some of the older trees of note on the grounds besides the jackson magnolia. Sure. Well, as jonathan talked about earlier, i think the most special one is the one planted by mrs. Cleveland going back to 1870s the japanese maple. It is often overlooked and overshadowed by the jackson magnol magnolia. But yes, the oldest known one on the grounds. And its a beautiful, beautiful plant. Theres also theres actually other thats are not president ial. Theres a blue atlas cedar on the south grounds. We dont know how old it is. It predates any records. And one of my favorites. Parrotia persica is on the West Jefferson mound. Again, predates records. But its a plant native to the caucuses. Its a tree in the same family as witch hazel and it blooms in the middle of the winter with dark velvety buds that open up into a maroon flower. Theyre small but theyre beautiful. In january, february, youll take anything you can get. Its a huge tree. Its a beautiful tree. But its not a president ial that we know. But theres some on the north grounds too. Theres a white oak on the north grounds planted by president Franklin D Roosevelt it goes back to the 30s. That one doesnt have the size you would expect. Its a very slowgrowing tree but is very healthy. I dont see any reason why it wouldnt grow to be a beautiful old tree. Those on the north dont get as much p attention on the tours. One that isnt really a tree, the north courtico. Every four years wed have a fight with the press covering inauguration wanted to trim them back to get better views of the front of the house. Im also old enough to remember the adams elm and to really miss that tree. I felt like it was a friend because, although it was a dieing friend, i kind of watched it over the years slowly lose limb after limb until finally there wasnt enough left to keep it going. But i miss that old tree. As a gardener i always wonder how do you keep the rabbit, squirrel and critters out of the vegetable garden and floure eer flowers. At the white house we didnt have to. Our biggest problem was squirrels. There were rabbits. There was a fence so no deer so squirrels were our biggest problem so we were very lucky in that respect. And i garden in the city so i dont have rabbits, sorry. I remember president reagan was our worst enemy with squirrels because when he would go to camp david hed load up his pockets with ac corn and bring them back and scatter them outside of the oval office. We were at one point transplanting squirrels out of the park and he was encouraging them to move back in. Its amazing. Like, everything at the white house is a big deal. The squirrels, one time we there was a tree that had come down and half of it had come down and we had to remove the rest of the tree and we came back and asked one of the employees to discretely take it to city wild life so they could be cared for and find out where theyre from and next day i read about it in the paper and i got a call from my boss what had happened, why. You have a different kind of garden. Question right here. You got the mic. Go ahead. If president of 1600 pennsylvania avenue said what would you do next, what would you advise them . I when you work there its their agenda. You have a lot of questions to find out whats important to them. You know, what do they want to make an impact as we learn today. People are going to be hashing this over for hundreds of years. So, whats important to you and what do you, where do you want to make an impact and we can help you do that. I think documentation is important too. I think each administration has a responsibility to carefully document changes for the future. Obviously there has to be balance. The building itself and groundouts have to function as a home, an office, a museum, and a stage. And the best way to achieve that balance is through the relationships of all of the entities there. The family. The staff. The outside agencies. And when those relationships are in tact and when theres respect between those relationships then you have the place working the way it should. But documentation is important. I think, you know, in 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. Where trees were replaced and see how the design einvolves over evolves over the years and keep a good record of that. I had the honor to volunteer for the spring tours and people are so amazed at the spring flowers, people go, werent those red last year, and theyre yellow this year. Do the flowers rotate out . Who decides on what colors to do . The the like the rose the annual thats are planted in the rose garden, east garden around the fountain are decided by the National Park service. Some administrations have much more weight in that than others. Theres been some traditional things. Red and yellow have been the traditional colors in the fountain along with the superintendent of grounds. Mr. Williams was the last one and then dale haynie the current one. So its the National Park service and decisions are made between lots of cooperators on the grounds, but in the end and like the vegetables in the Kitchen Garden, well its what the white house chefs you know, they would say cucumbers, but it was up to us to find the right cultive that would work for the garden. History has a lot to say about colors and types of plants and where they are and how many. The white house as an institution, it has an almost human ability to influence the people who live there and work there. And you tend to want to do whats been done in the past, what works in the past. Funny story about tulips. One Spring Garden tour during the Nixon Administration the gardens and grounds were open, people were coming through, just starting. Had been going for maybe half an hour, and the president was called back, some emergency. And for whatever reason the decision was made to land the helicopter back on the south lawn rather than on the ellipse. So we had to usher all of the people off the grounds. The helicopter came in a little too low, blew every single petal off every tulip on the ground so when people came back in there were no flowers to look at, just stems. Thank you. Right in the middle and on the side there. Thank you. Has the grounds of the white house gone mostly organic in its maintenance . Theyre maintained i mean, theres an ipm program, integrated Test Management where things are looked at and evaluated. And the white house Kitchen Garden it was always important when i worked there for mrs. Obama not to call it an organic garden because theres a lot of baggage with that, and also to be Certified Organic by usda is a big deal. So we did garden the Kitchen Garden organically and we didnt use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. But the white house grounds as jim alluded to after you have 35,000 people walking on your turf and two weeks later you could have a state arrival or garden tours and youre going to have to fertilize. So there are, you know, synthetic fertilizers that are used and like any lan scape, pests and disease problems come up, and if theyre monitored properly you make the right decision of what to use and how. And again it comes back to balance. You know, its not a pure environment. Its an environment that has to serve a lot of purposes. It has to look good for events when its used as a backdrop, and even to the extent i remember a state dinner one time when it was the Prime Minister of japan and it was the dead of winter, but they wanted to have cherry trees in bloom. So fortunately we knew several months in advance, so we got a couple dozen cherry trees out to the greenhouse and we forced them, and they were in full bloom in the state floor for the japanese Prime Minister. So, you know, its a garden, its a landscape, its a whole philosophy of balance. Approximately when are the two garden tours during the year . Theres usually a garden tour it does vary from administration to administration, but typically theyre in april and october. One weekend in april and one in october, and those are announced by the white house several weeks in advance. But i know in bush 43s administration there were monthly garden tours. So throughout the summer there was one day during the month where they were open. But, yes, they do vary occasionally but typically right now theyve been april and october. Any other questions . I have one kind of final question. I think its such a unique landscape and such an immense responsibility and as jim said such a High Pressure job. Im wondering about how you manage the balance between maintaining a historic landscape that is important to, you know, many, Many Americans and really an important landscape globally with the sort of i dont know want to say the whims of but the interest of the first family and how theyre going to use that space. You never lose sight of the design. You have a record of the landscape design, the product of the best designers over history and you always have that as a place to go back after changes have been made. That was sort of our philosophy when i was there, which always maintain a baseline of professional architecture in history. Never lose sight of that so when changes are made depending on particular administrations or events you can always go back to that and reset. Yeah, and go back to history, go with what work and you make it look good for the folks that are there and for that stage and for that balance. You just do what it takes to make the balance. Thats what we did. And good people. Always have good people in the picture, people like jim. And never be afraid to go out to the best expertise that you can find. And always remember the people doing the day in and day out work, the guarders, the laborers, those are very special people. They have high standards to maintain. They have a lot of pressure because of what theyre doing whether its deadheading roses or cutting grass, so many people looking at what theyre doing, and they are constantly in the background of tv cameras and so forth. Those folks deserve a lot of credit for their just day to day mundane work. Absolutely. [ applause ] thank you all so much. Thank you, susan, jim and jim. And that brings our wonderful day to a close. Id like to thank all of our presenters and our friends 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. Now its my privilege to invite you out to the courtyard where well have a reception to end the day. Thank you very much. Every saturday night American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who lizzy borden is, and raise your hand if you had ever heard of the gene hara gene harris murder trial before the class . This transformation that took place in the minds of the American People. Were going to talk about both of the sides of this story here, the tools, the techniques of slave owner power and well also talk about the tools and techniques of power practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures in history on cspan 3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv. And available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago, but our mission continues. To provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year weve brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app and be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by private industry. Americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Coming up next a look into the land scape of the white house grounds and garden. Jonathan pliska spoke at a symposium in washington, d. C. Good morning. My name is dr. Matthew costello and im the assistant director of the National Center for white house history. And it is a