Shimrit’s Garden

Shimrit’s Garden

My neighbor, Shimrit Ginott, got a well-deserved write-up in The Jerusalem Post’s local supplement, In Jerusalem, this week: The not-so-secret garden.

Once upon a time in the tranquil and otherwise leafy neighborhood of San Simon, there was a plot of land that nobody wanted. Occasionally blades of grass would poke through the broken concrete only to be flattened by rubble from a nearby building site or the odd municipal bulldozer sent to obliterate intrepid weeds.

Today, however, rosemary, irises, wild mint, periwinkle, geraniums, buddleias, lemon grass and olive trees now fill the space, and it's all thanks to the determination of one green-fingered resident.

For the past five years, Shimrit Ginott has spent up to an hour every day revamping this 3,000 square meter area, which lies just outside her apartment building.

Here are some pictures that I took in Shimrit’s garden a few weeks ago. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

The entrance:

A young fig tree (with an interesting plant in the background):

Red and purple:

Down the garden path:

A riot of flowers:

An anemone:

Tire planter with sign:

The one thing that these pictures don’t capture is all the birdsong.

Cheers to Shimrit! How fortunate we are to have her for a neighbor.