Take advantage of the country's many gardens and parks that you may not even realize exist.
By SHIRA TEGERiyim yerukim book 224.88(photo credit: )
Urban living can get a bit claustrophobic sometimes, making you want to leave the concrete (or stone) jungle as quickly as possible and get to a green, open space.
But you don't always have the time to go trekking to the top of a mountain, and you don't always have a good mode of transportation.
Which is where Mapa's new book, Iyim Yerukim (Green Islands), comes in handy. The guide suggests 120 parks and gardens across the country - some in the city, some out of it.
Anat Medmoni compiled the book, along with photographer Hanan Yissachar, by traversing Israel, checking out every green corner they could from the North to the South, including national parks, promenades and universities' botanical gardens.
Included in each site entry is a short summary, a longer explanation that covers the park's history, its typical visitors and other nearby attractions. Plus, there is a box of details for each entry with the cold facts: how to get there, the hours, the best season to visit, whether there is an entry fee, the facilities available and a phone number, should there be one. A small map shows each park's location, too.
The book covers the obvious spots - like Jerusalem's Sacher Park and Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park - but it also offers places a bit off the beaten path. Below are (translated) excerpts from the book, which will hopefully take you somewhere new during your Succot break.
We didn't touch: Yokne'am, the Pool Parkat Nahal Keret
n How to get there:
Travel along Yitzhak Rabin Blvd. There is plenty of parking on Rabin Blvd. near the park. By bus from the Yokne'am Illit terminal: lines 15, 15a, 16, 16a, 17, 184, 188
n Open: Sunday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m. to noon; Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
n Recommended season: Year-round
n Entrance fee: None
n Facilities: Benches, picnic tables, faucets, space for barbecues and garbage cans
Whoever passes through Yokne'am on his way from here to there without actually stopping in the city will find it difficult to believe that the city, which began as a transit camp (ma'abara) after the War of Independence, has become a juggernaut in the gardening sphere. There are no fewer than three parks in the small city: Gandhi Park, Yitzhak Rabin Park and Pool Park Nahal Keret, which is the most beautiful of the three. At the park, which is located at the southern edge of Yokne'am, are spacious green grassy areas, poplar and plane leaves rustling in the wind, and water spilling from one ornamental pool to the next.
The park encompasses 26 dunams and is situated along Nahal Keret, which dumps into the Kishon. On maps, the area is designated for "scenic planning," but the mayor wanted it to be a park with a lake with swans. Thus, the park was established in 2003, combining its natural vegetation with a landscaped garden.
The park's planners, landscape architects Tzipi and Ariel Tibi, wanted to retain the natural aspects of the park and afford it the respect it deserved. The wadi's channel and the plants on its banks were left as they were, and around them lawns, trees and pools were added. Two bridges erected over the wadi allow visitors to cross from one side to the other without harming the plants or animals.
The park is built out of circles. The five pools are round, and their waters flow in a closed circuit; the lawns are circular, edged with white rocks; and the benches spread around the lawns are rounded, too. Only the poplars and plane trees, which offer pleasant shade during the summer, ascend skyward. Even the recreation area is circular, and it houses a playground beside carob trees.
The wadi, which divides the park, is linear and straight, and along its banks are raspberries, reeds and castor-oil plants (kikayon). The kikayon, which is mentioned in the Book of Jonah, is a wild, invasive plant, and workers fight it off, uprooting it wherever it encroaches, unwelcome.
Saturdays and holidays are peak times at the park. The barbecue area gets especially crowded, on the north side of the wadi. Even on weekdays, that area is bustling. On Mimouna and Saharane, Nahal Keret is the happening spot in Yokne'am, and the town sets up a stage and brings in performers to entertain the crowds.
Swimming at the park is prohibited, and it's worth keeping an eye on the kids. Near the pools are areas where it is easy to slip into the water.
The park is beautiful all year round. In the winter, the poplars and planes stand among their fallen leaves, the wadi fills with water and you can hear the toads croaking. In the summer, the area around the park yellows, and the mountain drops to the background as the park stands out in its greenness. Because the trees there are still young, there isn't that much shade at the park. At night, the park is lit up with pleasant light.
What else is there?
On the southwest side of the park there is a little petting zoo. There, in a large, round cage, all kinds of parrots flit about. In aquariums and tanks built into the wall are fish, reptiles and various types of bugs. Entrance to the cage is only permitted to organized groups accompanied by a guide. Next to the petting zoo is another one, which houses rabbits and goats.
Whoever still has energy can take advantage of the 2,500-meter walking path that begins at the entrance to the park.
Nevertheless... Kibbutz Sa'ad, Cactus Garden
n How to get there: Kibbutz Sa'ad is located on Road 232, next to Sa'ad junction. Enter the kibbutz and turn right. The garden is about 300 meters after you turn. There is free parking near the garden. By bus: Take 379 from Ashkelon to Sa'ad junction.
n Hours: No limit, except on Shabbat and holidays, when it is forbidden to enter the kibbutz by motorized vehicle.
n Suggested season: Year-round, though the flowers reach their peak in the spring.
n Entrance fee: No charge.
n Facilities: There are benches and public restrooms, located next to the kibbutz's dining hall.
A wild and unruly garden is the succulent and cactus garden at Kibbutz Sa'ad. In an area that could contain half a soccer field, hundreds of types of cactus live harmoniously side by side. They were collected over about 50 years by one enthusiast.
Among the various thorns are benches, and along the paths are pergolas with climbing cacti and "cactus trees" that provide shade.
Cacti grow in an amazing variety of shapes, colors and flowers. But Yehuda El-Ami, a kibbutz member, was captivated by the magic of cacti for a totally different reason. His interest began because of their power and durability under harsh conditions.
As a survivor of Auschwitz, he knows what harsh conditions are about. The cacti, like the survivors of concentration camps, he says, succeed in subsisting without food or water. He calls them "nevertheless" plants: "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad" (Exodus 1:12).
El-Ami established the garden in 1958. He set it up at the edge of the kibbutz, where the expanding neighborhoods wouldn't get in the way. The cacti were collected from all over the country, and the chalk stones that border the paths through it were brought by truck from Jerusalem.
In the past, a sign stood next to each cactus identifying it. But the cactus experts, a zealous group willing to die on the thorn of a cactus, couldn't agree on the names, so the signs were removed. Instead, the plants were given popular, unscientific names.
The garden's hard-to-miss crowning glory is a massive spurge whose stalks face in different directions; it is called "the praying majesty." The cactus garden at Sa'ad is the forefather of all the cactus gardens in the country, and its offspring have been sent, for example, to cactus gardens at Ganei Yehoshua and in Holon. But unlike its spawn, which are organized, neat and delicate, this is a true desert garden that flourishes in harsh climate conditions. The big plants survive in high temperatures and with little precipitation. They benefit from irrigation only on the hottest of summer days.
For the most part during the week, the garden stands empty, and only every now and then do groups of visitors come through. But on the weekends, the cactus garden becomes a promenade that hosts the kibbutz residents and their visitors. Anyone who comes midweek will have the chance to sit quietly among the prickers and be impressed by the wonders of creation.
Children will find the cacti very interesting, provided they are given fitting explanations, but they need to be supervised. Careful, the plants stab! The colorful flowers reach their peaks in the spring, from March to May.
What else is there?
Sa'ad, established in 1947, was the first religious kibbutz whose founders were Israeli-born. Its members support themselves with farming, a cowshed and chicken coops. But alongside these traditional enterprises are a jewelry shop, a bookbindery, a clothing shop and a factory. The factory - Kav L'Kav - makes whatever it can out of fabric, from books to blankets to shawls. The members still earn equal wages, but the buds of privatization have begun to spring up.
Aside from the traditional branches of employment at Sa'ad, there is an animal corner for kids (entrance charged), and next to the dining hall is a playground.
Sa'ad's decorative garden, which was planned by architect Lipa Yahalom, is also impressive. It was established over 50 years ago. Its founders wanted to accomplish the impossible: to eliminate the Negev's barrenness. They planted hundreds of trees, though only a portion survived, mainly because of the limited knowledge they had about suitable desert vegetation.
True, the garden has seen more beautiful days, and housing expansion is eating away at it, but its original characteristics remain almost as they were at the start. It was planned to look like an English garden with expansive lawns and scattered trees. Some of the trees boast signage announcing their names. The founders of the garden accomplished their goal well.n
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
