--- title: Michelle Obama's Garden Will Stay Under Melania Trump description: Melania Trump will continue the White House vegetable garden established by Michelle Obama canonical: https://time.com/4669927/white-house-garden-michelle-obama-melania-trump/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-13T23:05:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:18:39.864Z article:section: Politics og:title: Melania Trump Will Preserve Michelle Obama's White House Garden og:description: The first lady will preserve and continue the the kitchen garden og:url: https://time.com/4669927/white-house-garden-michelle-obama-melania-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13fd22d6ede8d4c/6988ba342dce01014b9ec432/melania-trump-garden.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: us-politics-INAUGURATION-ARMED FORCES-ball og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Melania Trump Will Preserve Michelle Obama's White House Garden twitter:description: The first lady will preserve and continue the the kitchen garden twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13fd22d6ede8d4c/6988ba342dce01014b9ec432/melania-trump-garden.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Melania Trump Will Preserve Michelle Obama's White House Garden > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Feb 13, 2017 11:05 PM UTC  First Lady Melania Trump is seen the Salute to Our Armed Services Inaugural Ball at the National Building Museum in Washington on Jan. 20, 2017. First Lady Melania Trump is seen the Salute to Our Armed Services Inaugural Ball at the National Building Museum in Washington on Jan. 20, 2017. SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Feb 13, 2017 11:05 PM UTC One vestige of the Obama White House that will endure under President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4669566/justin-trudeau-donald-trump-washington-handshake/) is the [White House vegetable garden](http://time.com/4266876/white-house-gardens-gallery/) established by Michelle Obama. First Lady Melania Trump confirmed she will preserve and continue tending to the the kitchen garden, which played a central role in Obama’s effort to improve eating habits and combat childhood obesity in the U.S. “As a mother and as the First Lady of this country, Mrs. Trump is committed to the preservation and continuation of the White House Gardens, specifically the First Lady’s Kitchen Garden and the Rose Garden,” Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, senior adviser to Melania Trump, told CNN. The First Lady has yet to move into the White House since her husband was sworn in as president. While vegetables from the garden end up in dinners for the first family, much of the produce goes to homeless shelters, the [Washington _Post_ reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/02/13/one-part-of-the-obama-white-house-that-will-endure-under-trump-michelles-vegetable-garden/?utm%5Fterm=.707133eca707). Trump indicated an interest in gardens during a Saturday visit to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens with Akie Abe, the wife of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. > [](https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/830527742156402697) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4669927/white-house-garden-michelle-obama-melania-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4669927/white-house-garden-michelle-obama-melania-trump/"},"headline":"Melania Trump Will Preserve Michelle Obama's White House Garden","datePublished":"2017-02-13T23:05:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:18:39.864Z","description":"The first lady will preserve and continue the the kitchen garden","url":"https://time.com/4669927/white-house-garden-michelle-obama-melania-trump/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13fd22d6ede8d4c/6988ba342dce01014b9ec432/melania-trump-garden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13fd22d6ede8d4c/6988ba342dce01014b9ec432/melania-trump-garden.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"us-politics-INAUGURATION-ARMED FORCES-ball","caption":"us-politics-INAUGURATION-ARMED FORCES-ball","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4669927/white-house-garden-michelle-obama-melania-trump/","name":"Melania Trump Will Preserve Michelle Obama's White House Garden"}}]}] ```