Michelle Obama has been turning heads as a fashion trendsetter. Last week, she started what we hope will become a national fad by breaking ground on an organic vegetable garden on the White House's South Lawn.

It's a first for Obama, a Chicagoan who has never gardened, but she wants to set a good example of healthy food practices. The first lady has planted some good seeds of change — literally and figuratively — that should bear healthy fruit.

There's more good news. The National Gardening Association reports that 7 million more of us intend to put in a vegetable garden this year, a 19 percent increase over last year.

Fifty-four percent of gardeners surveyed say they're doing so in part to save money in the face of the recession. Smart move. The White House says total cost of seeds, mulch and whatnot for the 1,100-square-foot garden was $200. The gardening association figures that the average American home gardener will save $500 on vegetables.

Obama is not the only green thumb out there. In Dallas, a source at a big local plant nursery tells us that her how-to vegetable gardening classes are jammed with folks who have never given backyard gardening a second thought but decided that learning how to grow one's food is an important skill to have in bad economic times.

The first lady's vegetable garden shows leadership in touch with the times, but there's presidential precedent for going even further. During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson installed sheep on the White House grounds, thereby saving lawn-cutting manpower needed for the war effort.

Hey, Mrs. O., a fashion-forward agrarian move like that would be an audacious coup de grass.