The 1,100-square-foot garden, the first of its kind since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden during World War II, will grow dozens of vegetables, berries and herbs.
The collection of crops, a wish list from White House kitchen staff, will include lettuces, squash, fennel, rhubarb, cucumbers and sweet and hot peppers. White House chefs will use the produce to prepare meals for the family and for official functions, and some of the produce will be donated to Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen near the White House.
There will also be a beehive.
"We're going to try to make our own honey here as well," Obama told the fifth-graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington before they got to work on Friday.
The students will be brought back to the White House next month to help with the planting, and after that to help harvest and cook some of the produce in the mansion's kitchen. The first harvest is expected by late April.
Obama said her family has talked about planting such a garden since they moved to the White House in January.
After she spoke, the students were paired off and handed a gardening tool. The first lady joined--first with a shovel, then a rake--and together they began pulling up the grass, dumping it into wheelbarrows and depositing the contents in a central location.
With the garden, Obama initiated a public campaign to help Americans better understand where their food comes from.
Obama, who has spoken about healthy eating, said the garden will help get her 10- and 7-year-old daughters to eat their veggies.
"Especially if they were involved in planting it and picking it, they were much more curious about giving it a try," she said.
Such a White House garden has been a dream of noted California chef Alice Waters, considered a leader in the movement to encourage consumption of locally grown and organic food. She has lobbied the White House to plant such a garden for more than a decade.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
