“Grow, Grow”

A flatbed truck offloaded a hydraulic drill behind our property. It shuffled into position, cranked its beak high, then pounded the rocky ground with force, shattering boulders and all else that had sat silently beneath the earth’s crust for millennia. Boom. Boom. Then boom. Deep holes were dug and metal foundations were inserted, man marking his spot where wildflowers once grew.

My teeth chattered and my brain shook. The sound was so loud, I could not hear myself think and I fled inside. After the brain shake, cement trucks lined up to pour concrete onto the foundations and soon enough, a monster house lurched atop my lavender, its windows glowering into the guavas. 

The house was not a surprise: its massive size shocked us. And soon, three of these hulks will be crowding in behind the cauliflower. When we bought here three years ago, we knew a housing development would be built at the back but as most Israeli subdivisions are made of modest homes surrounded by fruit trees and flowering vines, I was not concerned. 

Yet, this monstrosity here looks more like an apartment building than a home. And what’s worse, the tiny strip at the back that overlooks us is paved with concrete right to the property edge and is covered by synthetic grass, a sign that they do not plan to plant a single tree or bush. 

This house is the antipode of our vision. When we bought, we did not care what our house looked like; we simply wanted to work the land, plant fruit trees, grow organic vegetables, raise chickens, and have quiet space in a crowded, crazy world to breathe and to expand our souls. 

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need

Cicero, Roman Statesman, 1^st century BCE

All of our energy went into creating a food forest and an organic vegetable garden. Yet looking way, way up at this concrete ‘highrise,’ we knew we had a nemesis more urgent than weeding or attending to our porcupine war. We needed privacy and we needed it fast. 

Eucalyptus!

We headed to a nursery near the airport and asked the owner for some advice on our issue. 

“Miyawaki,” he replied.

A miyawaki forest consists of native trees grown very closely together. The forest mimics a real forest and grows ten times faster and 30 times denser than regularly spaced trees. The fact that eucalyptus are native to Australia makes ours a ‘semi Miyakwaki,’ but desperate times call for desperate measures. 

We are sticking to our vision of being surrounded by nature in a quiet and private setting. We may just have to work harder and live longer in order to manifest our vision. 

We came home that day with 100 eucalyptus saplings. We pampered them all winter and finally planted them last February. It happened to be February 20, the tragic day when Israel received the bodies of the two small Bibas children who were kidnapped on October 7 and then brutally murdered. We planted with Ariel and baby Kfir in mind and now call this part of the garden Bibas Grove. There was a beautiful double rainbow that day, maybe a sign that such tragedy would never again happen to an innocent, young family.

The trees are now over two metres tall. I go outside in my baby forest and whisper to the trees, “Grow, grow.” I envision them tall and dense, a cool and shaded living sanctuary in a scorchingly hot country, and an ideal place for shinrin-yoku or forest bathing.

It is gratifying to watch the miyawaki forest flourish and it is also important work, especially in these times. We live in a world where the ground is quickly being paved over by asphalt, covered by concrete homes and sidewalk slabs, then neatly wrapped in synthetic grass. 

People make think we are crazy, but I take comfort in the following rabbinic midrash from Avot d’Rabbi Natan, a commentary on Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers). 

If you have a sapling in your hand and they tell you, ‘The Messiah has come!” go on planting the sapling, and afterward go out to greet him.

We feel that planting and cultivating is a type of sacred duty much lacking in our times. After all, after Hashem created the world, the first thing He did was plant the Garden of Eden, offering beauty and sustenance to Adam and Eve. 

Hemmed in by a large, new neighborhood, we are doing our small part; growing fruit trees, harvesting vegetables, and walking through Bibas Grove, gently whispering “grow, grow.”