Cacti efforts

January 12, 2010 - 10:42 AM by

cactiMy brother-in-law and I have been determined to fulfill a particular task during this year following my father’s death, and that is to plant cacti around his grave. The view from his grave — in the Beit Shemesh cemetery — is of a lush forest in the distance but it’s a pretty dry place, and not even a rosemary bush would survive there.

Michael, my brother-in-law, proposed planting cacti, and making a pilgrimage to the Regev Cactus Nursery, just outside Rehovot, a place that my nature-loving father would have adored.

With some 5,000 different types of cacti, plus a slew of other garden plants as well as a menagerie of birds, fish ponds and several zen gardens, we were just amazed by what the Regevs, residents of Moshav Beit Elazari, have accomplished on their plot of land. And my father, the romantic Zionist, would have loved the Regev’s motto, as shown in the sign outside the nursery: “If there is agriculture here, there is a homeland here.” The quote is attributed to Moshe Smilansky, a Russian immigrant to Palestine in 1891 who helped found Hadera and then settled in Rehovot, where he spent the remainder of his life as a citrus plantation owner, writer and agricultural leader, heading the Histadrut ha-Ikarim, or Farmers’ Association.

You can arrange guided tours of the Regev’s nursery, including explanations of the cacti, bonsai trees and Japanese gardens. And then you can buy cacti and succulents for your garden or balcony, and save on the ever-escalating water bill.

As for us, we’ll be planting sometime in the next week, and will let you know how that goes.

Tags: , , , • Category: Business, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life 

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