Mitzvah Garden

Can you change the world with a garden?

The Mitzvah Garden is an award-winning 1,156 sq. ft. impeccable growing space. Perfect orientation, perfect soil, superior irrigation and well thought out crop rotation and companion planting. Keep in mind the actual planting beds total 856 sq. ft. Our yield per square foot based on a 2,100 lb. harvest is 2.45 lbs.! The Rutgers Agricultural Experiment Station in New Jersey states: “As a general guideline, a Yield Expectation of 0.5 lbs. per square foot is a realistic value for Mixed stand, Small –Scale Agriculture.” We began this venture in 2011 and as of the final harvest of 2019 the garden has yielded 16,121 pounds of produce! So far we have donated the fresh vegetables to Cheshire Community Food Pantry, Masters Manna (Wallingford), St. Vincent DePaul Soup Kitchen (Waterbury), Shelter Now (Meriden), Jewish Family Services (New Haven), Southington Food Pantry, and The Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (New Haven).

All of our TBD gardeners believe our Mitzvah Garden is truly blessed. Their hard work over the past six years has created the most amazing garden – aside from helping to feed our neighbors in need, the Mitzvah Garden itself has strengthened TBD’s inner relationships and bonds throughout our community. She has honorably earned her name.

Temple Beth David is 200 families strong, and we all take tremendous pride in our Mitzvah Garden. It has been recognized by the Cheshire Town Beautification Committee and received the 2016 Beauty Spot of the Month Award (Cheshire Garden Club). We are currently the recipient of a 2018 Walmart Foundation grant. This year our goal is to build a broader base of core volunteers who can commit to keeping our Mitzvah Garden growing. For further information, please contact Larry Rosenfield: garden@tbdcheshire.org

L’ Shalom,

Larry Rosenfield