Garden Update: Pharmhouse July 2014

בס”ד

I am currently living at PharmHouse on Moshav Sde Trumot in the Beit She’an Valley. We have an amazing garden going. Most of the garden is perennial herbs, but slowly we have added vegetables. Interesting fact, the Beit She’an Valley is one of the hottest places on Planet Earth. The heat makes efficient gardening slightly difficult. All of our neighbors have been told us that it is nearly impossible to grow anything throughout the summer.

Lemon verbatim and a middle eastern plant which is amazing!

Our rosemary, sage, and lavender doing unbelievably great!

Due to this upcoming year being the year to allow the land to rest, we want to plant and grow as much as possible. Every seventh year the land in Israel is required to rest under strict laws in Judaism. This rest begins this September and lasts until the following September.I have not learned these laws,but I do understand minimal maintenance is allowed. I think that means watering. No weeding, trimming, or harvesting is allowed.

The back garden.

In essence crop rotation is very similar to this “year of rest.” The major difference being that the year of rest makes all the land simultaneously rest and not in sections. Crop rotation is extremely important in sustainability, as different species (and varieties) of plants take and replenish different nutrient and minerals from the ground. We are not letting the year of rest stop our work ethic though.

There have been many attempts to start from both seed and transplant cuttings. Due to a general lack of experience and some lack of watering, many died. Thankfully we do many plants flourishing around the garden. Specifically the growth that the rosemary, lavender, and sage are unbelievable. I have grown rosemary and sage before. I have never seen them grow this large this quickly anywhere. The weeds are ruling, but certain weeds are not so bad. For example, we have quite the amount of purslane growing. Purslane grows extremely fast, but is 100% edible and delicious.

Middle Eastern Squash from seed. It is being attacked by bug which I have yet to find.

Cantaloupe plants from seed, looking great!

Weeds taking over.

Our basil and some beautiful flowers.

Only one of the fifteen or more flowers that we seeded is actually flowering.

The seedling and transplant station.

Corn sprouting.

More seedlings which were seeded today.

In addition to all the perennials and weeds, we have been growing summer squash for a while. More recently we also transplanted cantaloupe, cucumbers, flowers, acorn squash, and a few other varieties which we started from seed. This past week we also started corn, flowers, more cucumber, more squash, peppers, eggplant, and dill.

The plants we are growing are doing amazing, but without irrigation they are nearly impossible to take care of. About month ago we purchased new irrigation pipes. As expensive as they were, they are undoubtably necessary. Since the new irrigation has been set up in the garden, we have had to fix very few holes or problems that could not be fixed immediately.

I look forward to keeping you all updated!

-Meir