We all need rest! Even nature, needs rest! 

This year I made the decision to not plant a garden. It was a tough decision as I love my garden and all of its produce it yields, but last year was a rough year for it. The weeds overran me at every turn and no matter how much I worked in my garden, I couldn't stay on top of it.  The deer and rabbits also had a feast all season long, something I've not dealt with until last year and despite my big Great Pyrenese dogs keeping watch, I still couldn't keep lettuce or spinach, my beans never grew past 3-4" and my squash was eaten as soon as the leaves started to sprout. To say that frustration set in would be an understatement. 

So this year I decided that I was going to let the garden rest. I was going to work the soil, maybe put the pigs in there to really stir it all up, and take some time to figure out why this particular weed liked this soil so much. Amending the soil should help keep it at bay at least a little bit, but even after testing my soil and getting it "just right", this pickily weed loved it even more. 

This week I was talking to a friend who was telling me that she had gotten her garden started and asked how mine was coming along and I was almost embarrassed to say that I was letting mine have a year off.  I felt like a failure. I teach on gardening and animals. I love helping other people get their homestead set up and guiding them.  Yet here I was, somewhat admitting defeat. The friend said "You are just taking a Sabbath year"...and that resonated with me! I found peace in those words!

Sabbath year is the 7th year, and this happens to be the 7th year of my garden! I started digging deeper into a Sabbath year with a garden and found that there is a Herbrew word for this. It's called "Shmita" and means "release" or "Sabbath of The Land". In Jewish law, during the Shmita, the land is to lay at rest. It is not to be tilled, planted, harvested or pruned. It can, however, be watered, fertilized, and weeded so I can still work with the garden, just not in a planting sort of way. This is a time to give back to the land. Time to replenish it, heal it, allow for it to regain nutrients from the sun and rain. 

So where does this concept come from?
The idea of Shmita is an old testament, Jewish belief. In Exodus, it states "You may plant your land for six years and gather its crops. But during the seventh year, you must leave it alone and withdraw from it. (Exodus 23:10). Leviticus also talks about Shmita " For six years you may plant your fields, prune your vineyards, and harvest your crops, but the seventh year is a sabbath of sabbaths for the land. It is God's sabbath during which you may not plant your fields, nor prune your vineyards. (Leviticus 25:1). Several other Old Testament books also talk about this Sabbath of the land, the purpose of it and the laws around it.

While I am not Jewish and do not hold to a lot of Jewish traditions, understanding the Shmita is like understanding the Sabbath.  "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the 7th day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." 

According to a medieval rabbi & scholar by the name of Maimonides, the purpose of shmita is to make the earth more fertile and stronger as we allow it to lie dormant. For many years we have abused the land.  We have stolen from it, raped it of its contents. We were called to be stewards of the land and in doing so to care for the plants, resources and diversity of the earth. We are to be protective, not dominant. And yet even in our organic agriculture where we are giving back to the land and replenishing it through methods such as rotational planting, Hugel mounds and permaculture, we are not giving the land time to rest. We are using our human methods not the methods God intended for the land. 

So this year, my land will rest. We will hopefully put some pigs out on it to churn it up and help with weed control. (See, I told you I wasn't following Jewish laws. This would NOT be Kosher!) We will pray over the land and speak blessings not cursings to it. And we will look forward to next year with having a large garden that is producing in an over abundance! 

Have you ever had a Sabbath year with your garden? I'd love to hear your stories, successes and things that you learned along the way.




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