Latest GOP conspiracy theory targets Michelle's veggie garden

[starroute]

This is from a few days ago, so apologies if it's already been posted -- but I didn't spot it anywhere in GD:P.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090626/OPINION/906260301/1037/NEWS04

It looks like the White House vegetable garden - first lady Michelle Obama's effort to model healthful eating for the nation - is infested with a pest previously unknown to horticulture. It's the boll weevil of the blogosphere: the conspiracy theorist.

Obama detractors are suggesting that the garden on the South Lawn (planted by Obama and schoolchildren in March) is fake. The conspiracy theorists claim that, despite a lot of compost and a very rainy spring, the vegetables harvested by the first lady and those same schoolchildren last week could not have grown so big in just 90 days.

These critics surmise that the White House substituted mature plants for immature ones - in the dead of night, I guess - in order to fool the public. An actual-dirt dirty trick that would live up to the name Watercressgate. . . .

The garden appeared legit to me. The Swiss chard and the collard greens and the kale and the lettuces looked just like the produce being sold at my neighborhood farmers market. The tomato plants look further along than mine, but then, Washington is 40 miles farther south. But I am a liberal feminist gardener, so of course I can't be objective.

[BOSSHOG]

1. In other words

conservatives are fucking ignorant about gardens as well.

[tabatha]

3. I ate a zucchini some 15 days after planting the bought seedling ---

and lettuce starting two weeks after planting.

At 90 days some of those plants would have gone to seed or be dead.

[beac]

24. What's your secret? My zucchini is making oodles of blossoms (yummy to eat in their own right) but

so far only males-- no female, fruit-producing blossoms in sight. :( My yellow squash did just make its first female flower, which I carefully hand-pollinated to be sure it got done right. ;)

As for the conspiracy theorists, clearly the closest they've ever gotten to a garden is the produce aisle.

[tabatha]

30. Luck.

I did nothing other than plant and water.

But, what I had done before planting veggies - is to create 18" high beds with good soil - on top of old beds, where previous plants used to attract lots of aphids. I don't have aphids now, but do use a garlic spray when the plants are young. And use coconut fiber as a mulch. Good, health veggies have resulted, and it is not back-breaking to maintain.

[beac]

31. I've been using garlic spray with good results too, though I wish the

squash bugs were a little more intimidated by it! Yes, I have squash bugs and no squash. :( I'm out every night and morning looking for the little jerks and squishing them. So far, have managed to keep them under control but UGH it's nasty work!

I'm gardening in containers in good organic soil. I'm now "brewing" a bucket of worm tea to feed the zukes on the suggestion of a gardening forum.

And my baby yellow squash died. Looks like I may have to rely on the farmers market for my summer squash this year.


Oh well, at least I have several good recipes using zucchini flowers. :)

[prolesunited]

34. There's still time to restart the squash

In fact, I'm planning a backup crop in case those insidious squash vine borers get my plants again this year. I think I picked off all of the little eggs, but it's hard to get them all.

[beac]

36. I may just have to do that. I'll be driving by the nursery later today and will see if they have

any seedlings left.

I hear you on the egg search. I've resorted to getting on my back next to the planter so I can look up. My dog finds this very alarming and starts barking like crazy. The things we do for homegrown produce! ;)

[tabatha]

37. I forgot to add that I added worm castings

--- I don't know if that helped.

I am also going to garden in containers as well - because the built-up areas are not large. So far, herbs seem to be doing well in containers.

Are the zucchini flower recipes online?

[beac]

41. I pm'ed you my favorite zux flower entree recipe. If you Google "zucchini

flower recipe" you can find lots of different variations for fried blossom appetizers (I've discovered you can also bake them using almost any of the recipes-- just eliminate the batter and bake them on parchment paper.)

They are also good lightly sauteed with garlic & basil as a homemade pizza topping.



I gave my zucchini plants some worm tea today and told them to quit loafing and get to work! ;)

[Andy823]

6. That's right!

At least the ones making up the stories. I have been eating lettuce from my garden for over at least a month. Tomatoes are going great, not red yet, but the plants are big an tall with lots of green tomatoes on them.

I think the right wing wackos just have to complain everyday about something wrong with the Obamas, how they go on dates, what they wear, etc. It's just a bunch of crybabies that can't stand it the he won, and the republicans are look like idiots in congress when all they do is say NO, NO, NO!

[Kber]

18. Well - they know how to work the can opener, so what else do they need

(assuming the electricity doesn't go out, of course)

[napi21]

2. HA! Must be a lot of peoploe who never planted a garden!

We did our first planting May 10th, and have beautiful tomatoes every day, lettuce matures in just a few weeks, We've had zucchini for several weeks already, and the other day I had 2 about 18" long and stuffed them. Our First lady has a lot bigger garden that we do, and a bigger variety of vegies, but there's no doubt in my mind that what we've seen is REAL!

[InvisibleTouch]

4. The only fake food I recall...

...was that fake turkey that Dubya was showing off with, a few years back.

[Fridays Child]

15. And I, for one, did not believe him when he said...

...he picked it from Laura's turkey garden! :P

[rasputin1952]

26. He should have had a breadfruit tree as well...

with loaves of Wonder Bread hanging from the branches...:D

[Perky]

5. Why would anyone in their right mind ever willingly plant Kale?

If that garden produced that gawd-awful bitter weed.... I may need to side with the conspiracy theorists, ig there is kale, there is something fishy going on here.

[MADem]

8. It's GOOD for you! nt

[Perky]

11. Yeah....and?????? nt

[MADem]

12. And.....it's GOOD for you!!!!!!

:rofl:

[tabatha]

21. Kale is great!

Has much more strength than lettuce, and tastes good.

Google it - it has good nutrients.

[Z_I_Peevey]

23. It's very pretty

as a garnish, or just a garden border. I'm with you on the gawd-awful and the bitter.

[MADem]

7. Idiots never lived in DC, plainly. Shit grows like wildfire there!

But of course, yeah, it's all a conspiracy--plastic veggies, that's the ticket!!!!!

[Raine1967]

22. 'Shit grows like Wildfire there'... ROFL!

It's DC... !!!!

[Webster Green]

9. Idiots!

They have been convinced by the chemical fertilizer lobby that organic methods are evil and don't work. :crazy:

[4lbs]

10. The Repukes don't know how fast fruits and vegetables can grow because they never actually grow them

themselves. They pay people to do it for them.

My mother has a garden at her house that she plants the seeds, adds fertilizer, and water and watches them grow. She's been growing fruits and vegetables pretty much her entire life, since she was 8 years old.

Lettuce, chives, and radishes grow rapidly.

She told me that the lettuce can grow to near full size in about 4 weeks (30 days) with enough fertilizer and daily watering.

The cabbage, radishes and chives, about 6 weeks (40 days).

Tomatoes about 3 months (90 days) to 4 months.

Now, the larger stuff, like watermelons, pumpkins, honeydew melons, and tall stuff like wheat and corn, can take as much as 6 or even 7 months depending on conditions. That's why people typically plant those in February and harvest in late June to early August.

So those Repukes can shove it.

[Doremus]

14. Chives are perennials. Ours come up every year in the spring. n/t

[Political Tiger]

13. I hear Michelle calls her vegetables "whitey"......

B-)

[Adelante]

16. Ho, ho

:D

[MiniMe]

17. All the Obama's had to do was to clean out the repub side of the Senate

Lots of composte there.

[Blue_Tires]

19. oh noes...the conservative bloggers have discovered our secret soylent green refinery!

[Cleita]

20. Also, there are the WH gardeners who are tending the plants when

Michelle and the children aren't. That means they are weeding, watering and plucking out the pests and the plants that aren't thriving. It could be that green house seedlings replace plants that are harvested. It is an ongoing cycle of planting and harvesting for anyone who has done it and a busy First Lady couldn't be out there every day.

[rasputin1952]

25. Man...they are really making Stretch Armstrong look like a wimp w/the

way they stretch this...:eyes:

Odd, considering the GOP ought to know all about veggies...they send a few up for the presidential nomination every 4 years...:D

[zulchzulu]

27. OMFG! They cracked the CODE!!! We Democrats can't...grow...veggies!!!

I'm packing up my basil, spinach, tomatoes, watercress, parsley and scallions and... oh, wait... homegrown salad! Maybe it's me...

[vixengrl]

28. I hope my garden doesn't find out I'm liberal.

It'll be the end of my tomato and basil-laden salads, the best part of summer outdoor eating. *Sniff* The fennel will never survive if they knew my personal foreign policy bias was pro-diplomacy. If my grapes didn't think I was a....wait.

Nevermind. I'm pretty sure they know from my liberal use of rainwater and tendency to eschew chemicals that I'm a tree-hugging, patchouli-wearing, garden-momma Dem. They grow for me anyway. I'm actually suspicious many of them are of the Green Party.

[TwilightGardener]

29. Planted my zuke and cuke plants in mid-May, already eating them.

My tomatoes are still green, though.

[polichick]

32. If organic is good for the first family - and presumably everyone else - why did we get...

...this guy???

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15573.cfm

[TheCoxwain]

33. What the fuck do these assholes have against family becoming more self reliant?

[GreenPartyVoter]

38. They frequently claim that is one of the things they are all about, so once again

the hypocrisy stinks to high heaven.

[GentryDixon]

35. Silly People

My visit to DC the week of the 15th-19th of June:



This was taken the day after Michelle and the children harvested their first crop. Sorry it is not clearer.

[Gman2]

39. Just imagine if they had gone hydro! I do, cuz the only weeding should be AFTER harvest.

[Honeycombe8]

40. Those fat, unhealthy, KFC walking heart attacks are very afraid of the trend toward healthy

living, apparently.

Then there's this awful green thing going around because of the global warming hoax!

Give me my beer and my bucket of KFC, turn on the Fox channel, quit taking my $ in the form of taxes, and get the hell away from my gun! (See ya in church on Sunday, though.)