Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency White House Gardens 20240713

Thanks so much. Its an honor to be here today to speak with you all about white house gardens. Both of our jims, both of the other panelists are named jim and both worked at the white house. So were going to run our panel differently at the end here, im going to open up for your questions because i feel its a unique opportunity for you to ask questions of people who worked on the gardens. Were the last panel of the day well finish the discussion on white house gardens by talking about gardens established since the Kennedy Administration so the last 50 years. In many ways the gardens have been inspired and used. Ill start by talking about some of the garden trends and movements that have inspired and influenced the development of the white house gardens and grounds. Also talk about first ladies and president s because in the last 50 years its been the first ladies that had the influence on the white house grounds. Perhaps more than any other first lady, Lady Bird Johnson was extremely plant focussed and impacted not just the white house grounds but also the nation as a whole. After she left the white house, she established the National Wild flower research center, known as the Lady Bird Johnson center. Its also the state Botanic Garden of texas. During her time at the white house, she was instrumental in establishing the 1965 highway beauty few indication act. Which sought to limit roadside advertisements and clean up the roadsides of the interstate highway systems across america. The act encouraged the scenic enhancement by funding local efforts to clean up and landscape the green spaces on the side and in the medians of the roadways. More than 300 conservation laws were passed during the Johnson Administration having a large and Lasting Impact on the green spaces throughout america. Soon after she established the Wild Flower Center she encouraged a texas senator to add an amendment to a 1987 transportation bill that mand e mandated that projects include the planting of wildfires. Lady bird johnsons beautification focussed on not just the nation but really d. C. As well and worked to get more flowers planted on the Capitol Grounds and around the district of columbia. The First Division momentum in President Park south, west of the white house. It honors the u. S. Army soldiers that fought in world war i and the large flower bed there, its a giant number one. Thats in the shape of the First Division patch thats thanks to Lady Bird Johnsons efforts to beautify d. C. It remains in place today and its taken care of the by National Park service. Her parting gift was the creation of the childrens gar den in 1969, one of two new gardens since the Kennedy Administration, the other being the kitchen during Obama Administration. It was meant to be a respite, a space of exploration and reflection by the children and grandchildren of the white house residents. It features an apple tree planted to provide a snack to younger garden visitors, a small fish pond, which we saw in the last picture here at the edge. Just sort of right its 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 remember the first tv gardening personality, a wonderful british woman with a great tv series called making things grow in the late 1960s. There was an Environmental Movement as well challenging the way americans thought about gardens and green spaces across the community. You can see one of the hand prints, this is jenna bush when she was a granddaughter, before she was the daughter of a president. The 1980s and 90s brought a new Organization Called the garden conservation, it was founded in 1989, with the idea to share education and inspiration for the public. And the occupants of the white house during this period did not make large changes to the grounds but contributed to the conservation and preservation of the landscapes. Hillary clinton probably had her largest influence on the grounds was in bringing in a series of sculpture exhibits into the Jacqueline Kennedy garden. There were eight exhibits in total, one of which featured all pieces made by American Indian artists. Laura bush, like her motherinlaw, had a very strong interest in gardening and she her influence on the garden on the white house grounds was in restoring some of the existing planting. So replacing the plantings in kind. So with the same that were there traditionally or historically. The rose garden for example, the crab apples and box woods were replaced. And, of course, the gardens enjoyed much use by the president. This is president george bush right there riding his bike across the rose garden. So moving into the late 90s and into the 2000s multiple movements took off across the country and the new york city green Street Program was established in 1996 that transformed green streets, in 2000, the national Streets Coalition were founded. The greening of american streets transformed what were hostile and unattractive intersections into beautiful spaces in which plants were also planted. So we have a couple examples here from minneapolis to san francisco, across the country. This is a great example in new york city of a major transformation of an otherwise parking lot here into a nice space with planters for plants. During the this time period, the attacks of september 11th occurred and had a lasting and large impact on the white house grounds. In response of the attacks, the northbound was closed to vehicle traffic but thanks to the greening of America Movement and the vision of an ark tech tekt, although the street was closed to vehicles, it was made accessible to pedestrians. This is what immediately happened after 9 11, they put up barricades and then this is the result after the design redesign efforts. That project was in 2004. Here it is. This redesign included planting of disease resistant american elm trees along the street. In the mid 2000s, america had an interest in local food. Of course food comes from plants, nice connection to the white house grounds. These are a few of the books published during the time period, encouraging people to grow their own food, source food, go to local farm markets. The number of farmers markets increased twofold, basically double the numbers were in the United States in 2010 as compared to 15 years earlier. That was part of the inspiration for the other new garden within the white house grounds since the Kennedy Administration and that of course is the Kitchen Garden, thats the focus of the next talk. Jim adams is going to talk about that and give you the story of the Kitchen Garden which he helped maintain for many years. The white house grounds have been a place for reflection and also of the people who lived in the white house and of the American People and their creativity. The landscape used by the first family and enjoyed by the public, maybe not today to the extent it was in this picture here, in 1927. You can see people are running amuck, i would say, on the grounds there. Still today, the grounds host many Public Events collusiinclu tours and the easter egg roll we heard about earlier today. So im going to introduce jim adams to talk to you about the white house Kitchen Garden. Thank you very much, susan. 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 and i did have the honor of serving as the supervisory horticulturist on the white house grounds for eight years. So i started just after the Obama Administration started. So i had the honor to serve them and the beginning of the trump administration. So its with that i can speak a little bit about this. And the white house grounds, as has been mentioned today, is a Historic Cultural Landscape and is maintained by the park service. But its very different than most cultural landscapes. Most of those they mark a certain time and its maintained to look like that time. Well, the National Park service does do that until theyre told otherwise. It still the back yard of the president and his family. And as susan 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 closely with the ushers office and the first family to give them what they need. Whether it be long term project or short term events or projects. The park Service Works with them to make sure those needs are met. In 2009, after the Obama Administration started, mrs. Obama had come to the National Park service and said, id like to put in a Kitchen Garden, can i do this . Well, 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 conversation, 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 gardening year started every year in the spring where she would come out with school kids and they would plant the spring vegetables. Heres a school group that came out and she really wanted the kids to do the work. Park Service Staff, first ladys office staff would help set everything up, but the kids did the work. 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 on the white house grounds would have to be perfect. No, it was all about the kids. And she had a great time with the kids when they came. Actually, this was one spring planting where an entrepreneurial young student snuck a sharpie in his pocket and at the end, after the photograph, asked the first lady to sign their tshirts so she obliged and signed their tshirts. That was pretty clever. Sometimes she would invite Celebrity Chefs and other people to 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 in late march, early april. Lots of spring vegetables, spina spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and it would grow through the spring and be lush and look nice throughout the year. Then at the end of the spring term when we would guess when we were going to have the biggest harvest come about, she would have a garden harvest, here school kids would come in, they would 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 summer garden wasnt so formal in its planting. It was actually because spring not everything ripened at the same time, so as it ripened we would plant the summer garden. The first lady did one planting at one time with some native american tribes and did a Three Sisters garden with corn, beans and squash. The corn was the polls for the greens to grow up, the beans would give nitrogen to help the corn grow and the squash would grow at the base to kill out any weeds. The garden thrived all summer long and grew nice and lush. When people ask me about my tenure at the white house, they said what is it like . Its the highest pressure gardening job you can imagine. Youre always on. And to have a vegetable garden like this, you know, it was really it was a program of the first lady, of her office and we assisted with it, but it always had to look good. You didnt know 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 the good summer vegetables like cucumbe cucumbers, tomato, peppers, eggplants all those nice things. Lots of greens. Also we tried to make it a little bit of fun. The first ladys office the fl first lady wanted it to be accessible to people. She didnt want to make it too white house, not like something that anybody couldnt do at home. So we had, as you saw in some of the pictures, wooden edges, s simple mulched paths. But also some of the first ladys employees wanted to make it fun, not just boring. What can we do to keep kids interests, so we tried to grow fun things like peanuts. We grew peanuts for several years. Yard long beans, which is an asian bean that gets to be several yards long. We grew papayas in pots. 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, theres an herb bed, this was used by the white house chefs. There was a perennial herb bed that was always there for use year round. And chiefs, thyme, agregno, bay, rosemary. Then it started out as one bed but ended up as two as the garden grew, it started at 1,100 square feet and grew to about 1,700 square feet by the time the administration left. It was important for mrs. Obama to honor Thomas Jefferson and his legacy. It started with one bed and into two. Plants grown during Thomas Jeffersons time. This was one of her favorite quotes by jefferson, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another. And instead of one harvest, a continued one throughout the year. So we kept this sign in the jefferson beds the whole time. How did we decide what to grow . It was easy, what the first family ate. So the grounds staff would work with the chefs, what the family would eat and use for state events. And then we helped out the first ladys office to make all this happen and the chefs would come down and harvest throughout the year. So spring, summer, figs, leeks, all kinds of things all through the fall we helped provide. They used it for the first familys private meals but these are tomatoes and radishes that was a vergetable kabob that was one of the congressional picnics. The things they couldnt use, either the white house chefs processed them for later use and Everything Else was given away, donated to a local soup kitchen. And at the end of the summer the first lady would have another gathering of school kids and they would come out, the white house chefs would come out as well and help prepare the vegetables that 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 was several times we were working down, the president would be in an oval office in the meeting and walk down with someone and show off the Kitchen Garden. You dont know the guests at night theyre bringing down. But this was the last state arrival of the Obama Administration, this was the state arrival for italy. This is the first lady of italy, who mrs. Obama gave a tour of the renovated Kitchen Garden in october 2016. And i was lucky enough to be able to join this tour and here they are pointing out some of the new additions to the garden. Actually, as we were walking through, the first lady of italy had never seen a yellow tomato before. And actually, which is one of the white house favorites, sun gold for you those of you that garden, theyre delicious, yellow little bundles of sweetness. Shed never seen one so we picked a handful and shared a handful of sun gold tomatoes. Maybe they can put that on my tombstone. 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. But so National Park Service Staff because they take care of the who Cultural Assets of the white house, they are the daily caretakers of the garden, but there are also volunteers. Plsz obama wanted this to be a group effort. There were volunteers that came in once a week, big groups. Sometimes smaller groups and single people that came in, they would do things like weed and cu cultivate and harvest. This was an amazing tomato harvest, 74 pounds of tomatoes one day. They would do the harvesting to take it to the kitchen and prepare it. The garden didnt end in the summer. It has been in continual operation since april of 2009, it grows through the winter. In the winter we there was row covers put on and low tunnels put on, and delicious cold season vegetables are grown there, like spinach, lots of greens, broccoli, call flour and things like that. And it grows through the storms. When we get 22 inches of snow, people are out there digging these out so they dont collapse. The garden has been in continual operation since. When mrs. Obama put in the garden, it was important to have a beehive. This was the first beehive on the white house grounds ever. Its been mentioned about some of the previous vegetable gardens in the past but this is the first beehive. And then in 2014, after an executive order on pollinators, the National Park service was asked to put in a Pollinator Garden so we worked with the first ladys office and with some of the policy makers from the west wing on what they wanted that to be. And we the National Park service put in this Pollinator Garden, which the focus of it is mid atlantic natives to support our native pollinators, as well as honey bees, so that was planted in a spring planting in 2014. Heres beau to give us a hand. The first lady then planted this with the School Children as well. Its turned out to be a beautiful garden ever since. Its a nice show piece on the north side of the Kitchen Garden. The garden grew over the years and in 2016, when mrs. Obama realized she was leaving, you know, she really wanted to make the garden a little more permanent. Like i said, it was always meant to be something that the American Public can relate to. But now she was thinking this garden is going to be could be here for a long time. We didnt know who the next administration was, they could tear it out, keep it, but she wanted to make sure it had an importance, and the importance of being at the white house. So some of the more simple elements that were there, like a small picnic table and the paths were then taken and a large it was designed by the Landscape Architect students at the university of virginia, and a large patio was put in so they could the garden could be enjoyed. Some permanent paths, 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 to it. It was dedicated by the first lady in october 2016. And with every good white house dedication theres a nice there was a nice party with it. And then the last harvest, i think was bittersweet for everybody, not knowing where it was going. It was quite a fun time. Several celebrities came, like heres al roker here. Actually picking beans with some of the school kids. And actually, the big guy came out. President obama came out. This was the first time he came out to a garden event. As susan said, the first lady really drove this, so he has never been out to a planting or a harvest before, so he came out to see what it was all about. And she was able to show off the improvements to the garden to the president. And the last photo of the last harvest in that administration. But then, just like the other gardens around the white house, it was picked up by the next administration. The garden, mrs. Trump, in september 2016 continued the tradition with a large harvest and a planting for the fall and winter garden. So it was picked up for the next administration and the next folks to take it over. Thank you. [ applause ] dr. Pell, jim adams, its such a pleasure to join you today to explore the rich history and variety of the white house gardens and grounds. And as all of you have heard during 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 provided over 200 years of refuge for president s and their families, a formal dignified setting for the business of 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 formal gardens like the rose garden and the Jacqueline Kennedy garden, informal spaces like the Kitchen Garden and childrens garden. And recreational spaces like the tennis court, horse shoe and putting green. As we have learned during todays presentations, president ial involvement in the design and planting of the white house gardens goes back to George Washingtons selection of the seuss for tide for the hous. This plot was larger than most American Farms of the time. It included what is todays lafayette park, white house grounds and the ellipse. The vistas to the north and south were grand then and remain grand today with momentums, parks and the Potomac River in the distance. President s have continued 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 approached the gardens and grounds with unique perspective and skill. Jimmy carter for example had aneni 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 Free Standing so there was no impact on the cedar. Later in the carter administration, the National Park service had determined that a maintenance structure near the tennis court had to be demolished. It had originally served as the pony shed for the kennedy childrens pony. And many repairs extended its life but it was no longer usable. The replacement would require the removal of a tree that was not historically significant. President carter asked if the new building could be oriented to save the tree . We took a second look at the design but decided it was better to remove the tree because the ground would impact the trues root system. On the morning that the construction crew arrived, they found the stakes had been moved during the night. When i questioned the chief usher about this, he did some question checking and told me that president 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 under a tent on the south lawn with 1,300 guests. It was the largest sitdown dinner ever 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 sopping sponge of turf. We tried every measure possible to dry out the ground and cover the area under the tent. We brought in blowers, burlap and dug a 2 foot deep trench around the perimeter of the tent to try to drain the area. I remember feeling so bad for the women whose high heels sank into the mud as they walked into the tent. But i also felt worse for the ground crews who after working long hours to try to dry out the area had to come in the next morning and rip out acres of water logged turf and 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 after congress complained about, quote, little feet ruining the grass unquote at the u. S. Capitol. President hays invited children to come to the white house. This was like a small country fair attended by youngsters. During the Reagan Administration the egg roll was enlarged. 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. 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 crew installed bleachers on the lawn for an event leaving no landing space for the plane. Because he cut his engine gliding to the white house he couldnt pull up at the 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 and fortunately the thick walls of the building absorbed the impact. The camp david accords were days of intense negotiations between egypt and israel facilitated by president jimmy carter at camp david in 1978. The peace treaty, however, was signed the following year on the north lawn of the white house. Weather is always a factor with Outdoor Events as many of you who have planned or attended outdoor weddings can attest to. July 1976 was a steamy hot day. A tent had been erected for a state dinner with Queen Elizabeth ii, she had accepted an invitation to celebrate the buy sen ten cal at the white house. Anticipating the need for air conditioning in the tend, they asked the military to bring in field ac units. As they were cranked up for testing in the morning, all the military personnel dawned heavy ear attenuators. 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 a couple of enterprising park Service Engineers ran a chilled copper water line through the west wing offices and jerry rigged a system to cool the tent. An afternoon rainstorm knocked out some of the 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. Certainly an unfortunate choice by the band but something we can laugh about today. For two centuries, the white house garden and grounds, as you learned from all 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 30 plus years a new dimension has emerged. That of a high security compound after the bombing of the Marine Barracks in lebanon in 1983 a series of walls and planters were constructed as measures to prevent the presentation of the defense line by bomb layden trucks. This bought time before they could design a more permanent solution that fit within the historic landscape design. The goal was to achieve a balance between physical security measures, respect for the historic landscape and Public Access. With subsequent terrorist acts and threats, however, more physical and Operational Security measures were overlayed 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 a fence that is more than twice the height of the existing 7 foot, 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 approved a comprehensive design plan for the white house and president s park. This was the First Comprehensive design plan for the entire president s park since its initial plotting in 1791. It includes guidelines for the management and development of the white house grounds in president s park in into the future. Allowing this plan to influence todays decisions on security and guide decisions on development will ensure the integrity of this special space for generations to come. Thank you again for the opportunity to share a few of the many stories from the white house grounds. This special place 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 because i feel we had an opportunity this morning to ask questions, there were so many great questions, lets give another opportunity to do that. Do we have any questions . Theres a mic coming your way. 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 its well, you cant go along e street any more but at the south fence line looking in, it would be to your left. So you can see it . Yes. 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 ellipse side of e street so its a little far but you can see it from a distance. Yep. Theyre going to bring you a mic. One second. There it is right there. Is there or has there ever been a Cutting Garden for all those fabulous floral arrangements done in the white house . There has been a green house up on the roof level, and in that green house there have been different types of plants. Sometimes there have been roses and other plants that were used for cuttings. There also was some bonsai up there for a while. So its im not sure its still there. But for many years there was just a small green house 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 do line up to see the obama garden. Its a wonderful time. But what i want to ask you, back to the students at the university of virginia, is there a solid record of the design drawings or is there something that archively available . At the National Park service. So you can apply to get a copy of that . Yes. Thank you. Question just over there. 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. It goes back to the 1870s, the japanese maple. Its often overlooked and overshadowed by the jackson mag known y magnolia. Its the oldest on the grounds and its a beautiful, beautiful plant. Theres also theres actually others that are not president ial. Theres a blue atlas cedar where amy carters tree house was on the south grounds. We dont know how old it is. It predates any records. Thats a beautiful old tree. And also one of my favorites was a peronia persica, do you know the common name . I dont. Its on the West Jefferson mound. Predates records but its a plant native to the caucuses. Its a tree in the same family as witch hazels and blooms in the middle of winter. It has these dark velvety buds that open to a maroon flower. Theyre small but beautiful. And in january, february youll take anything you can get. Its a huge tree and thats a beautiful tree, but its not a president ial, that we know. But, you know, theres some on the north grounds, too. Theres a white oak on the north grounds planted by franklin d. Roosevelt, goes back to the 1930s. It doesnt have the size you expect, it grows slowly but its healthy. I dont see why it wouldnt grow to be a healthy old tree. Those trees on the north ground dont get as much attention as the southbound that you can see on the garden tours. One is not really a tree, its the truman boxwood im thinking about on the north port koe. And 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. And 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 gardner i wondered how do you keep the rabbits, squirrels and other critters out of the vegetable gardens and other flowers. At the white house, we didnt have to. The biggest problem we had was squirrels. Rabbits, there were none, no deer because as jim talked theres a fence around there, so no deer. Squirrels were our biggest problem. We were very lucky in that respect. And i garden in the city, so i dont have rabbits, im sorry. I remember president reagan was our worst enemy with squirrels. Because when he would go to camp david he would load his pockets with acorns and bring them back and scatter them out on the portico just outside the oval office. And we were at one point transplanting squirrels out into the park and he was encouraging them to move back in. Its amaze like everything at the white house is a big deal. The squirrels and one time when we there was a tree that had come down and we were half of it had come down so we had to remove the rest of the tree and we cut it out and came across a squirrel nest. I asked an employee to take it to the city wild life to take care of it. And the next day i read about it in the paper and i got a call from my boss asking me what happened. So, yeah, different kind of gardening. A question right here. You have the mic. Go ahead. Well have her next. If a resident of 1600 pennsylvania avenue said what should we do next, what would you advise them . I when you work there, you its their agenda. So you have to have a lot of questions to find out what are whats important to them. You know, what do they want to make an impact as we learned 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 . We can help you do that. I think documentation is important too. I think each administration has a responsibility to carefully document changes in the landscape for the future. Obviously there has to be balance. It has that the building itself and the grounds 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 intact 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, 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 e slolvolves over the ye and keep a good record oaf that. Ive had the honor of doing the tours, volunteering for the spring tours. People come through theyre so amazed at the flowers. People go, werent they read last year and theyre yellow this year. Do the flowers rotate out and who decides on what colors to do . The the like the the annals that are planted in the rose 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 the fountain. Along with the superintendent of grounds who we mr. Williams was the first or the last one and dale haney, the current one. Jim said its decisions are made between lots of cooperators on the grounds. But in the end, like the vegetables and Kitchen Garden, what the white house chefs, you know, they say cucumbers. It is up us to find the right one to work for the garden. So its a collaboration. Yeah. 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, it has almost human ability to as the people that live and work there and you tend to want to do whats been done in the past, what works in the past. There is a story about tulips. One Spring Garden tour during the nixon administration, the gardens and grounds were open. People were coming through. Just started. Been going for maybe half an hour. And the president was called back. And for whatever reason, the decision was made to land the helicopter back on the south lawn. So we had to usher all of the people off the grounds. The helicopter came in a little too low. Blue every single petal off every tulip on the grounds. So when the people came back in there were no flowers to look at. Just stems. Thank you. Question right in the middle here. Then one over on the side there. Right in the middle and then one just over there. Raise your hand over there again so he can bring you the mike for the next question. Thank you. Has the grounds of the white house gone mostly organic in its maintenance . Theyre maintained i mean, theres an ipm program, integrated Pest Management where things are looked at and evaluated. It is always important when we were there for mrs. Obama not to call it an organic garden. There was a lot of baggage with that and also to be certified by usda is a big deal. We did garden the Kitchen Garden organically. And where, you know, we didnt use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. But the white house grounds as jim eluded to, after having 35,000 people on your turf, two weeks later you can have a state arrival or garden tours or youre going to have to fertilize. And so you would use, you know, synthetic fertilizers that are used. Like any landscape pests come up and if theyre monitored properly, you make the rooiight decision of what to use and how. Again, it comes back to balance. Its not a pure environment. It has to look good for events when used as a backdrop. And even to the extent of i remember state dinner one time where there was the Prime Minister of japan and it was the dead of winter. They wanted to have cherry trees in bloom. So fortunately we knew several months in advance a couple dozen cherry trees to the grown house in kennel worth. Its a garden, landscape, balance. Approximately when are the two guard entours duri tw two gua two garden tours per year . It varies from administration to administration. Typically theyre in april and october. There are monthly garden tours. Day during the month where they were open. But, yes, they do vary occasionally. Typically right now theyve been april and october. Any or questions . All great questions. I have one kind of final question. I think such a unique landscape and immense responsibility as jim said, such a huge, High Pressure job, i wonder 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 want to say the whims of but the interests of the first family and how theyre going to use that space. You always have that as place to go back to after changes have been made. That is our philosophy when i was there. Was always maintained baseline of professional Landscape Architecture and 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 worked. You make it look good for the folks that are there and for that stage and for that balance. Do what it takes to make a balance. Thats what we did. Good people. Always have good people in the picture. People like jim. And never ab fraybe afraid to ge best expertise you can find. And always remember the people doing the day in and day out work, the gardeners, laborers, theyre very special people. They have high standards to maintain and a lot of pressure because of what theyre doing whether it is dead heading roseoroses or cutting grass. So many people looking at what theyre doing and theyre 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. Thank you all so much. Thank you. 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 the Garden Foundation who are with us today. And we look forward to having you all involved with and attending anything that we do here at the White House Historical association. We really appreciate your support and parngs ticipation ir events. Now its my privilege to invite you to the courtyard to have a reception to end the day. Thank you very much. Why do you all know who lizzy boredon is and raise your hand if you ever heard of this trial, the gene harris murder trial. The deepest cause where we find the true meaning of the revolution was in this trance formation that took place in the minds of the American People. The tools, the techniques, slave owner and we also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were 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 lectures in history is available as a podcast. Television changed since cspan began 41 years ago but our mission continues, provide an unfiltered view of government. We 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 landscape of the white house grounds and garden. Jonathan pliska, author of garden for the president spoke at a symposium hosted by the White House Historical association in washington, d. C. Good morning. My name is dr. Matthew costello. Im the assistant director of the david m. Rubenstein white house history. Its a privilege to be here and see all the pieces come together and its a truly privilege to