Q&A

My elderly father is cared for in our home by a live-in foreign, gentile caregiver. Can we offer him our kedushat shevi'it fruits and vegetables, or is this like using kedushat shevi'it produce as wages?

I have a cherry tree growing on my porch. Am I allowed to cover it with a net?

Am I allowed to collect seeds during shemitah and plant them next year?

I have a cherry tree growing on my porch and it can be accessed only through the house. The tree is now in its fifth year and is producing fruit now for the first time. How am I supposed to render it ownerless?

In the yard of my apartment building there is a mulberry tree, next to the parking lot. Most of the residents aren't interested in picking the fruit and in regular years we do. Am I allowed to harvest the berries and prepare jam, just as I do during regular years and like I used to do in the United States, in my childhood?

I am advertising my running group at the entrance of a development nearby. I hung up a sign on the gate and just recently noticed that a bush is hiding most of my contact information (instead of 0543261860, only the 8 and 6 are visible!)

Am I allowed to trim the bush so everyone can see my number?

 Do you have a Shehechiyanu when you eat for the first time kedushat shevi'it produce?

I was so excited this week (Iyar 5782) to buy peaches and nectarines with kedushat shevi'it from Otzar Ha'aretz and now I have a question about them:

I eat the fruit and then the pit is left with lots of bits of fruit attached. Am I allowed to throw the pit away or should I put it in the shemitah bin until the fruit rots? What about a composter?

I'm a gardener and I have a client whose apricot tree is a mess. It is terribly overgrown and the fruit is also infested. The fruit is starting to yellow, but it's not really ripe yet. Is there something I can do?

During regular years, I like to pick flowers and fragrant herbs (star jasmine, roses, and rosemary) from my garden to decorate my  house and perfume the air in honor of  Shavuot. Can I put them in vases with water, or is that like planting them?