White House Farm Foundation Garden Summary

White House Farm Foundation Garden Summary

1917 Kauffmans Mill Rd.
Luray, VA 22835

Most folks who live in the Shenandoah Valley would agree, the summer of 2013 was unusually cool and rainy. These conditions made for a fabulous summer to grow a garden and hopefully, many people took advantage of the excellent season to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and to put some garden goodies up for the winter, either from their own gardens or by supporting local producers at farmers markets.

The goal of the Agricultural Sustainability Mini-Grant project was to demonstrate how a relatively small plot of land can be used to grow a sustainable, chemical-free garden, producing sufficient food to feed an average family during the growing season, preserve a percentage of the crop for winter consumption and even sell a portion for profit.

A quick summary of the garden is as follows:

Total direct sales from the garden: $500

Total hours of labor: 227

Total inkind value: $9264

Total value of produce grown: $4647

Total pounds of produce: 1144

Garden produce was sold to local restaurants in Luray, shared with garden volunteers and donated to the local food pantry.As we delivered produce to West Main Market in Luray, we picked up their food scraps, resulting in 910 pounds of organic matter diverted from the landfill. These materials were added to our compost which will enrich the soil for next year’s garden.

The $500 from direct sales covers the cost of the seeds, many of which were heirloom so the seeds can be saved for future planting making the garden more sustainable. Seeds were ordered primarily from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and through a program of the Seed Savers Exchangewhich provides seeds packaged for the previous year to nonprofit organizations.

The total value of all the fresh organic vegetables grown in the 2400 square foot garden was $4,647. This amount is a conservative estimate based on the total number of plants, considering local growing conditions and actual yield. Comparison prices were obtained from the organically grown vegetables at the Friendly City Co-op in Harrisonburg and the local farmers market.

The garden season began in February with seeding of lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. These were grown indoors using grow lights and gradually hardened off as the outdoor temperatures increased. The average frost-free date in Page County is May 15 and this year proved on schedule with a hard frost on May 13 and 14. Row covers stayed at hand to help protect the early-planted tender seedlings.

The following crops were grown in the garden: lettuces, Russian kale, Swiss chard, sugar snap peas, green peppers, pole beans, bush beans, cucumbers, beets, watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic and a variety of herbs and flowers.

The following are a few of the lessons learned from growing the garden:

• Refrigeration is important: keeping produce cool greatly extendsitsquality between harvest and consumption. This is particularly true if crops were not sown at intervals and an abundance is ready for harvest at the same time
• Lettuce varieties should be chosen with care: in the White House Farm garden, an entire row of butter crunch and several varieties in a mesclun mix were a total loss due to sudden bitterness. Timing lettuces to mature before temperatures climb too high is very important.
• A certain amount of market research is needed in order to know what produce can be sold commercially. Markets can be developed but it is better to know what will sell before buying seeds. One way to do this is to simply interview restaurant owners in the winter before finalizing seed orders.
• Contact the local food pantry to make sure fresh fruits and vegetables can be donated and if there are specific packaging requirements.
• Gardening without using chemical herbicides and pesticides is challenging: bugs want to eat your garden goodies just as much as you do. The best defense is constant scouting and controlling pests at low numbers before their populations get out of hand.

The garden in August 2013

A sampling of some of the garden productsHeirloom Garlic

Students from Mountain Laurel Montessori volunteer in the garden for the spring open house

Ornamental Garlic Baskets Flowers harvested before the last frost

In an interest of making the garden as financially sustainable as possible, dried and silk flowers were used to decorate baskets filled with garlic grown in the garden. These were sold at the Page County Heritage Festival and at West Main Market. Proceeds from the sales will be used to purchase additional seeds for the 2014 garden.

Just before the last frost, the zinnias, cosmos and dahlias were harvested and shared with residents at Whispering Pines, the local assisted living facility. Plastic cups were rescued from the trash at an event held earlier in the spring.

All in all, the garden did very well this summer and produced a large amount of food. One purpose of the grant was to show that growing a garden is a great way to save money. In Page County, land is generally leased for hay production at $20-$60/acre and for crops at $20-$100/acre. This project demonstrates that growing a garden can represent a win-win situation for landowners if they can spare a plot of land for a garden and for individuals interested in producing their own food but may not own the acreage to do so. Growing one’s own food does require an investment in time and diligence but the rewards are worth it in the health benefits, quality and taste of food and the opportunity to continue growing heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables that are in danger of disappearing from the marketplace.

We very much appreciate the support of the Valley Conservation Council and the Agua Fund for the garden this season. More information on the garden can be found at our website:

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