Ground Breaking

I personally know almost nothing about gardening and was a little nervous today as we got started. We began with just a chunk of ground. Several members had surveyed the space already (including those who own the property!) and tested the soil.

The first step was tilling the soil. In other words, we had to turn the grass upside down and get to the dirt. We had to pick up and toss rocks, brick, roots and other hard debris that was underneath.

One person would use the tiller as others shoveled and raked.



Once the ground was pretty well dug up, we flattened it out with rakes and put compost on it (the dark stuff). It was bought in bags at the store rather than schlepped from people's personal compost heaps.

On top of that we put biodegradable paper to keep the weeds down. The kids had fun putting the rocks on it to keep it down.

After all that, it was time to put up the fence. By now, I was exhausted, but those who still had any wind left managed to pull this off.

All this took about 4 hours.

Next week... planting.

Who We Are

Ginat Kesher.

It's a garden begun by members of Kehilat Kesher, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Tenafly/Englewood, NJ. It was begun by several of us from the "Green Shuls Committee".

How'd we get this crazy idea?

For two previous years we participated in a CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) program during the summer, purchasing shares of vegetables from a local organic farmer.

Our goals:
-to support a local farmer
-to have organic produce
-to cut down the "food miles" our vegetables traveled
-to reduce the distance between our food's origins and our mouths, thereby helping us and our children to be more sensitive and aware where our food comes from!

However, our farmer was no longer available this year.

So, with a committee of just a few people with some diverse skills (a good people organizer, a couple of experienced gardeners, some folks who like directing kids and a bunch more people willing to go along for the ride) we decided to plant our own.

We're starting modestly this year and hope that in future years we can expand.

Whatever we grow, we'll eat, bring to shul, or donate.