Gardens / Gardening Subscribe

A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on garden-gardening.

From the Blogs

Lessons for Israel from Ghana

SEFWI WIAWSO, Ghana — About six years ago the Ghanaian government brought a delegation of Jews from the Israeli town of Dimona to Accra, Ghana’s capital, to speak about the importance of local agricultural production and consumption. But even though Ghana has a long way to go on its path to becoming a developed nation — becoming part of the so-called “First World” — there's a lot that Israel can learn from Ghana. For example, here in Sefwi Wiawso, a small town in southwestern Ghana near the country’s border with Ivory ...

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Reflections on a Snow Pea

Reflections on a Snow Pea Green, flat, with a little elf hat Crispy, sweet, great to eat I wanted a snow pea, I planted a seed It grew past the radishes, carrots and weeds It reached to the sky, up my stakes and trellis My neighbors looked on, boy were they jealous It gave a white flower, then a small pea Which reached out from its blanket for something to see. The pea grew quite quickly, we’ve had lots of sun It’s time for the harvest, where we’ll reap a ton One as a tester and one to confirm One for my ...

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Blessings for all

Jews love blessings. We bless our food, our weather, and our new clothes-nearly everything. Why then do we not have a blessing for planting? Today at camp, we began planting our garden. Campers were able to dig their hands—too often used for texting and videogames— into rich soil. They planted tomatoes, brussel sprouts, sweet peppers, basil, cabbage, and kohlrabi, but before we put these life-sustaining plants into the ground, we took a step back to surround our actions with consciousness and purpose. I had all the campers write their own blessings for ...

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All we need is love

The kids are here. 183 screaming, excited and overly energetic 2nd-8th graders, and they are ready to change the world. Rather, we want them to be ready, but, is it reasonable for adults to expect these campers to make significant social change from our camp bubble in upstate New York? Is it fair of us to ask them to attempt this mission that my generation and the generations before have failed at? I am not sure, but I do know that we can and must expect a higher level of compassion and caring this summer. Yesterday, while staking the pepper plants growing in our ...

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The world is sprouting at Camp Sprout Lake

It has been three days of hard work, blisters, and buckets of sweat, but it is almost time to sprout, literally. Next week, the campers of Young Judea Sprout Lake in upstate New York will arrive. For this eight-week summer, I have one goal in mind, to make clear the intimate connection our tradition has with the earth. As staff has slowly trickled in from across Israel, Canada and the United States, I am impressed by the continual excitement when they meet “the Garden Guy”. The desire to dig, plant and labor is ever present. I believe this spirit is ...

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If a tree could grow in Brooklyn

Monday, May 9, 2011 If a tree can grow in Brooklyn If a tree could grow in Brooklyn, certainly a garden could grow in a New York school yard.Returning to the kindergarden, the Green Bubbie was thrilled to see the progress of the seeds she had planted with the children. They were eager and curious how a garden could grow in their playground. We built a "raised bed" a 3x3 foot wooden ' box' used lanscape fabric on the bottom and filled it with gardening soil. We planted the peas and zuchinni which we had grown from seeds ...

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Reflections on a Religious School year almost past

It seems hard to believe, but with the Pesach holiday having past, there are only 2 weeks of classes remaining in my Religious School calendar. This being my 6th year teaching a Jewish / Environmental education curriculum to 6th graders, I feel I have developed a pretty good set of teachings which I have presented & discussed with my class. However, I can’t avoid the feeling that there is still so much left to teach these students that we haven’t yet had time to cover. With only 2 classes left, I am faced with the decision of how best to spend the ...

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Question of the Week #18

Ilana Krakowski, intern at Hazon, asks Jewcology's question of the week. What are you growing this year?

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Sun, Soil, Water: California Magic Should Do the Rest

Garden season in Southern California is year round and every time I turn around another garden has popped up. Last week I helped IKAR, a spiritual community in Los Angeles, to put in their very own garden. A great company, Farmscape, donated beds, soil and automatic watering supplies to the cause. Neighborhood people and IKAR congregants helped with the building and schelping. It was a beautiful day and I was proud to be a part of it. However, one thing that I truly learned from the experience is that while so many people are interested in getting their gardens ...

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Eye on RAVSAK: The North American Jewish Day School Conference

Today is the second day of the RAVSAK conference and I will be presenting on a panel discussing "Laboratories for Innovation: Day Schools and Jewish Social Entrepreneurship." The theme for this year's RAVSAK is The High Performance, High-Tech Jewish Day School of the Very Near Future. The various presentations that are happening throughout the conference are clear within thematic scope: issues pertaining to technology, innovation, special needs, stress and Israel. One of the many things I will be discussing is how gardens and green spaces on school ...

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The Garden

Garden. Two syllables. No difficult “ch” or “tz” sounding pronunciations. The guttural “ayin” is left entirely out of the mix. However, as a graduate student studying landscape architecture, I still find myself grappling with the word. As a child, there was only one garden, the Garden of Eden. There were no difficult questions. The garden was paradise, the place where God took care of all of Adam and Eve’s needs. Then I learned that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. You can ...

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California Grows!

California Grows! I recently attended the Hazon Food Conference in Sonoma, CA. There, I met numerous others who are working with gardens of all stripes; urban, suburban, rural, educational, communal, and private. I want to highlight a few of the interesting garden or farm projects in California. By sharing these projectsI hope others can learn about what they are doing to engage their communities in environmental and food learning. First, the Urban Adamah in Berkeley. My understanding of the Urban Adamah is that there are fellows who live ...

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Setting Strong Roots – an ongoing story of growth

“So where should I dig?” “Svalo! Wait! Not there... that’s where the new plots are going to be we’re digging now for the live hedge... Don’t worry there are 30 pits to dig for 30 beautiful bougainvilleas…” So yes it’s happening - the “Setting Strong Roots” Community Garden will be doubling its size this month which means 30 more plots are added to the existing 50 plots! The community is in full action, last time we had such a big workday was before my time here when Isaac Hametz, the founder of Earth’s Promise, initiated this ...

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From the Gan: Creating Sacred Space (in Chicago)

The Gan Project: Chicago Jewish Environmental Network (CJEN): theBlog I am a product of the Jewish camping phenomenon with a combined nine years as camper and staff at Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, WI. spanning the years 1993-2004. As my friends can tell you I am a wellspring of stories that begin with the now infamous opening line "this one time at camp..." I have had countless conversations with other alumni from camps all over the country all of whom can attest to their Jewish identity being what it was today because of their summers ...

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