What is an organic community garden?

The community garden is a physical space dedicated to the growth of food for the body, vegetables and fruit, and food for the soul, growth of flowers and interpersonal relationships between the gardeners. The "organic" informs us that we are gardening with nature's cooperation and without the use of synthetic chemicals which are frequently toxic to the environment, including all animal life from the micro-healthy bacteria, to the macro-us. "Companion planting" (see garden book resources) and coordinating your crops with the local insect-movement timetable are examples of cooperative methods. We use insecticides produced from natural sources, which biodegrade quickly and fertilizers from composting, manures and rock dusts. Though harmony of spirit and earth are the blessed results, our purpose and intent is "do no harm" as we express our control of the earth by coaxing forth its fruits.

But why a Jewish garden?

One of our primary responsibilities is Tikkun Ha Olam. We have readily engaged in this edict at a social level, but for too long now we have not given the environment its necessary priority. The need to turn our efforts towards lifestyles which "live more lightly" on this planet is indeed pressing! There are many ways to begin this consciousness raising, and a garden is a very visible, interactive way to do this. Even after the incandescent fixtures have been replaced with florescent and the Styrofoam has been banned from the Oneg Room, the garden's soil is still being built. Each growing season of the organic garden shows greater results and the community tending it is enriched as well. Cooperative work groups learn to share resources equitably, be good neighbors, and make decisions for the well-being of all, not to mention kibbitzing and schmoozing a lot! So keep the garden open to new members, and provide as many opportunities as possible to increase the number of Jewish souls who can reconnect with the task of Earth stewardship, the Living Torah.

To set a garden up:

An area of land needs to be allocated. It can be as small as 4 foot by 20 foot with soil that can be dug and loosened or a frame of untreated wood can be built and filled with soil from a local garden center. The garden beds should not exceed 4 x 25 ft as it becomes difficult to walk around and reach into. Once the bed is set up you don't want anyone stepping on the prepared soil. Two other requirements for your garden are water accessibility and at least 8 hours of sun a day. Finally, you'll want one good garden reference book to get started if you haven't gardened organically before. (See bibliography at end)

Once you have your Board's approval: Announce the formation of your garden group on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, and have flyers sent home through the Sunday school. Write an article in your shul's newsletter asking interested people to call you.

The size of your garden can vary according to land availability and funds. Try to keep each member?s parcel no larger than 4 by 10ft at first. If there is a problem you can start quite small and have each person or family take responsibility for just a few square feet.

We do most of our gardening together on Sundays during and after Sunday Torah school. Our first garden was 25ft x 10 ft and seven families shared the entire plot. The next year we broke it into autonomous sub-plots with new areas set aside for everyone to take care of. This has proven to work best for our group which now numbers 21 families. We covered our initial expenses by having everyone involved donate $40 for the year and later on we organized a fundraising coffeehouse to pay for an automated irrigation system. We also asked all congregants to search their sheds for old garden tools and donate them to the new community garden.

It took a couple of months of advertising to attract members and then meeting and deciding how we wanted to share the work before our first crop went in. We tasted the first "fruits of our labor" three months after the idea's inception when we harvested a crop of radishes. Though yields were not high, we were able to donate some of our extras to a small group home for abused girls.

The initial maintenance requirements consisted of watering and bug inspections carried out twice a week. Garden members signed up for turns and stopped by the shul garden on the way to or from their jobs. We also had each member take a turn aerating the compost once a week. One of the unexpected benefits of the bug inspections was that most of us became more knowledgeable about beneficial insects and their role in our world.