No, the Redesigned White House Rose Garden Doesn’t Spell Out KKK

Get a grip, folks. It’s a classic (albeit boring) garden design.

Photos were released today of the newly renovated White House rose garden that First Lady Melania Trump requested. And, because it’s 2020 and this is what we do now, people are flipping out and suggesting that there’s a nefarious message in what is actually a ridiculously standard garden design element.

The new design includes a diamond-shaped border planted in clipped boxwood shrubs. In garden design, this is about as basic as you get. You see it in all kinds of classic gardens in Europe as well as here in America.

But viewed from above, some are claiming that the boxwoods spell out “KKK,” a reference to the infamous racist terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan.

I am the last person who would want to defend either Donald or Melania Trump or the Trump administration, from accusations related to their racism.

They are racists, I have no doubt. None. But there’s no need to create crazy conspiracy theories around that.

It’s just a boxwood hedge design. It’s classic. It’s basic. It’s downright boring.

But that’s really about the worst thing you can reasonably say about it.

Let’s get a grip, people. There’s plenty to be outraged about. That doesn’t mean you need to see subliminal white nationalist messages in a simple hedge.

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If you’re interested in gardens, please check out my publication, Garden to Table: Victory Gardening for the 21st Century: