White House Grounds, with Magnolias and Dogs

By Susan Harris|2024-06-20T08:20:08-04:00March 28, 2021|2 Comments

Thanks to the official White House Facebook page, we’re seeing glimpses of spring flowers on the grounds, with these magnolia shots posted March 21 and today. Nice! Please post more!

(Oh, and about the Facebook page – Biden supporters may want to skip the comments.)

And thanks to the MEDIA, seemingly ALL of them, we’re seeing glimpses of the White House lawn with the Bidens’ German shepherds Champ and Major romping on it. The media’s rapt attention to White House dogs was sparked by a little nipping incident involving Major, their bad-boy shelter dog. He’s been returned to the White House after some retraining back in Delaware.

That’s all for now. Hoping to see more soon, and not JUST dog outings.

By Susan Harris|2024-06-20T08:20:08-04:00March 28, 2021|2 Comments

About the Author: Susan Harris

Susan co-founded GardenRant and wrote for national gardening magazines and independent garden centers before retiring in 2014. Now she has time for these projects:

– Creating and editing the nonprofit website Greenbelt Online to serve her adopted town of Greenbelt, Maryland (a “New Deal Utopia” founded in 1937); and managing the Greenbelt, Maryland YouTube Channel. She’s also on the Board of Greenbelt Access TV.

– A YouTube channel chronicling her hoop-dancing adventure and curating tutorials on YouTube for beginners.

– Founding two resource websites: Good Gardening Videos that recommends science-based gardening videos on YouTube; and DC Gardens, the nonprofit campaign to promote the public gardens of the Washington, D.C. area, and gardening by locals.

Here Susan rants about anything that misinforms or discourages gardeners – from old-school quacks to mistaken do-gooders to local laws that mandate conformity – and reports on news from the world of gardening.

Contact Susan via email or by leaving a comment on one of her articles.

2 Comments

Diane from CO March 29, 2021 at 6:22 pm

Love it, love it, love it! The Biden’s seem so delightfully normal. What a nice change. The magnolias are beautiful – more please!
Just waiting for one or two of the grumpy Gus’s to show up and chide you, “No more politics, please. I don’t come here to see more political …”
Blah, blah, blah.
I give it 3 or 4 hours.
Tara March 30, 2021 at 8:22 am

Architectural Digest, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-full-story-behind-the-controversial-rose-garden-redesign.

Glad of the most recent Rose Garden renovation, just to see ANYTHING, in detail, about the White House garden. Saved the pdf the White House shared of its process. Quite amazing, detailed, and long.

Oddly, saved the article Bunny Mellon wrote for House & Garden magazine, back in the day, (1980’s?) about her processes designing the Rose Garden for the Kennedy’s.

For decades the White House landscape appears too-so-embarrassingly-tritely neo-colonial during press conferences with lawn as the backdrop, not the Rose Garden.. Manicured, fertilized, chemicals, irrigated lawn, white wrought iron bench….oh the horror to a profession.

Notice, timeline crosses political boundaries. As if GARDENING defies the march of time.

Why does the White House landscape lawn, still project a Southern Gothic Ante-Bellum-White-Male diktat ?

“Southern Gothic Literature | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of …https://oxfordre.com › acrefore-9780190201098-e-304
by TÆ Bjerre · 2017 · Cited by 11 — Southern Gothic is a mode or genre prevalent in literature from the early 19th century to this day. Characteristics of Southern Gothic include the presence of irrational, horrific, and transgressive thoughts, desires, and impulses; grotesque characters; dark humor, and an overall angst-ridden sense of alienation.”

What would be a good landscape style for the White House? Modern Pastoral….. Honoring all; Nature and people.

Thank you Susan, always a good day, seeing the White House garden in headlines !!

Garden & Be Well, Tara