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Gardening on Shemitah

1.  Once Tishrei begins,  seeding and planting are totally forbidden.

2.  Other labor (e.g., pruning, watering, etc.) is also forbidden when performed to improve the garden.  However, when done to preserve the garden's condition (or to prevent the plants from being damaged), such other work is permitted provided that:

• the plants or blooms would otherwise be recognizably damaged, and
• only the minimum amount of labor to prevent such damage is performed.  (If damage has already taken place, no work may be performed to repair it, but only to prevent its spreading.)
  

3.  Under these conditions, the following is permitted:

• Hoeing and crumbling the soil around plants once a month to prevent damage
• Removing those weeds that can harm the plants.  IT is best to use chemical herbicides.  Where impossible (due to possible damage to the cultivated plants), you may weed with a hoe.  Weeds may be removed to prevent the entry of (poisonous) snakes or scorpions (as they may take regue in the high grass).
• Pruning thorny bushes to prevent prickles from damaging flowers (or to discourage the entry of snakes or scorpions).  The foliage here may be cut back, but not uprooted.  However, it is best to spray herbicides.
• Fertilizing with nitrogenous fertilizer but not with organic, phosphorous, or potassic varieties.  Even nitrogen fertilizer is to be used only when damage is visible (e.g. yellowish grass or retardation in growth or in bloom budding), in minimal quantities and as infrequently as posssible.  In case of widespread damage, consult a rabbi.
• Watering as infrequently as possible, depending on the quality of the soil and the kind of plants.  For many plants, slow growth is an indication of a need to water them.   Temporary afternoon wilting of leaves is not considered damage.  In normal weather, watering once every two weeks for 1.5 hours is sufficient.  In hot, dry weather, it is permissible to water more frequently.  New gardens may be watered once a week.  Grass need not be watered at all in winter; once a month is sufficient in summer.
• Spraying and dusting against diseases and harmful insects are permitted once a month if there is good reason to believe that the plants would otherwise be damaged.  The same is true for special paints applied to the bark of a tree to prevent further harm (but not to cure existing damage).  IT is permitted to wrap plants to protect them from heat or cold or to control their growth, or to support young plants to keep them from being damaged.
• Pruning is permitted to prevent damage or deformity, but it should not be done in the normal manner.  This means cutting straight across the branch at a higher point rather than the usual diagonal cut.  Where a straight cut is normal, cut at a slant.
• Trimming a hedge is permitted in winter if it has grown out of shape.  In summer, consult a rabbi.  Some authorities maintain that all pruning must be performed by a gentile.
• Mowing lawns is allowed only to prevent the grass from dying or from losing its shape (if its too long and too dry).  Some maintain that a gentile must do this.
• Sweeping away leaves and trimmings (or any trash) is permitted if the soil is not being cleared for planting.
• Irrigatino ditches may be dug around plants.  (The soil removed may not be dispersed in the area, but should be left around the grooves as a barrier, or be piled up in an area that will not be planted.)

4.  All the permitted labors, excluding the digging of irrigation grooves, may only be done for the shemitah year itself, not for the eighth year.  Any labor that can be postponed until the eighth year may not be performed in the seventh year.

5. Odoriferous flowers and fragrant plants may not be despoiled.  They may not be plucked before they are at least somewhat usable. Nor may a plant be uprooted as long as it still possesses flowers or fragrant growths.  Analogously, you may neither cut twigs nor rip off leaves that retard plant development.

6.  The picking of odoriferous flowers or fragrant plants must be done differently than usual -- in other words by hand or with a tool other than that usually used.  Also pick only a few at a time.

7.  In any situation not discussed here, a rabbi should be consulted. 

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