Veggies sprout at City Hall

Although the White House may not be quite ready to replace the famous rose garden with rows of broccoli and tomatoes, Vancouver's City Hall will soon convert  a patch of its lawn into a community garden where residents can grow food.

Vancouver isn't the first city to do this. We reported on raised bed gardens in front of San Francisco's imposing City Hall  last summer -- although they didn't replace the lawn, just filled in an unused ornamental pond.

And the US Department of Agriculture recently broke ground for the first of a series of People's Gardens, which will be maintained by volunteers and which will supply fresh produce  to local food banks and soup kitchens.

These may be small efforts, but each counts in getting the word out.

(Note: We invite you to visit the main page of the Monitor’s gardening site , where you can find many articles, essays, and blog posts on various garden topics.)