You didn’t expect Queen Mooch to pull her own weeds?

Via Politico:

Michelle Obama’s celebrated White House garden is overrun with weeds and wildlife — yet another victim of the shutdown, according to a popular blogger on all things food-related at the White House.

“The vegetables filling the 1,500 square-foot plot are now rotting away on the vines and in the boxed beds, thanks to the mandate for ‘minimal maintenance’ placed on the skeletal crew of National Park Service gardeners who remain on duty at 1600 Penn.,” reports Eddie Gehman Kohan, the creator of Obama Foodorama, a website that chronicles the administration’s food initiatives.

his lack of maintenance has had a “dramatic impact” on the kitchen garden, which is usually meticulously cared for, Gehman Kohan says. Mushrooms and weeds are popping up. The tomatoes and basil are out of control. The sweet potatoes have been relinquished to “worm food.”

A White House source told Obama Foodorama that under the shutdown gardeners are not allowed to harvest any of the crops. They are only allowed to water the garden and remove trash — restrictions that preclude raking, weeding, or clearing out dead leaves.

According to Obama Foodorama, White House Supervisory Horticulturalist Jim Adams remains on the job, but he is not permitted to beyond the minimal maintenance restrictions. Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, who is furloughed, usually holds weekly garden weeding sessions, but those have also been canceled during the appropriations hiatus.