On Saturday, the White House threw open its gates to any and all visitors for one of the two garden tours it hosts each year. The walkthroughs of the executive mansion’s verdant grounds are the only times the public can visit without an advance appointment (unless you use Google, of course); volunteers roamed the streets around the White House passing out tickets to thousands of city-dwellers and tourists queued up for a glimpse at the South Lawn, vegetable garden and trees planted by presidents as far back as Andrew Jackson.

Shortly before the masses arrived, a pair of White House aides escorted reporters and photographers around the gardens and grassy expanses that offer a clear, soaring view of the National Mall, Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. Greenskeepers tended to the patch of vegetables and herbs planted by first lady Michelle Obama. On a shady stretch of the path circling the South Lawn, the United States Marine Band, wearing red coats with white epaulettes, played a set that ranged from presidential pomp to soft, brunch-y jazz notes.

The White House, not unexpectedly, is an exquisitely manicured place. In the vegetable garden, heads of lettuce and bouquets of broccoli sit in perfect alignment; on the lawns, not a blade of grass is out of place. The only blotch is a dead white oak, planted in 1930 by Herbert Hoover. Like much in Hoover’s era, the white oak sits there, rotted and barren.

Briefly, the media tour was visited by one especially photogenic member of the first family, though you’ll have to wait for another post for that.