This week my tiny patio garden has been a hive of activity.

The unusually balmy October weather has been a boost to my family’s traditional Jewish harvest celebrations, sparing us from the annual soaking we associate with this outdoor Sukkot festival of freedom, fruit and freezing weather.

To celebrate the harvest, we gather in an outdoor, flimsy structure - a succah - decorated with foliage and fruit. The hardier amongst us even sleep there during this week-long festival, so clearly not designed with North London in mind.

Building a traditional succah is, as with so many rituals in Judaism, highly regulated, from the need for three walls that do not move in the wind to a roof through which you can see the stars.

More manageable is the roof made from natural vegetation, which must provide more shade than sun - easy - with walls near enough to the ground that a goat cannot crawl in. Basel and Shuli, my dogs who are the size of small goats, have tried but failed in their determined attempt to wreak havoc.

Ham & High: Laura Marks celebrated Sukkot in her small patio garden Laura Marks celebrated Sukkot in her small patio garden (Image: Laura Marks)

To the annual bemusement of my less-than-handy husband, I dug my Sukkot trinkets box out of the basement cupboard and spent hours last week decorating.

I hung fairy lights to represent those missing stars, rubber reusable grapes for the harvest, and the last vestiges of my summer hanging baskets for vegetation, whilst balanced precariously on a garden chair.

As Sukkot came in on Friday night, husband, family, friends and dogs, all crammed inside to admire my handiwork and to welcome the festival.

In the tiny oasis of my succah, we blessed the lulav, a bundle of different types of carefully curated foliage and we sniffed the Etrog, an ancient fruit similar to a lemon.

As my friends, and even my husband, admired my handy-work, we consumed big bowls of crisps, and performed the most important ritual of all, simply being together.

Sukkot, at its heart, is about connections and community. This week with guests from local Muslim and Christian communities coming to visit, we can build bridges, notice our similarities – and probably get wet.

Last Friday we were soon back indoors tucking into traditional challah, chicken and potatoes leaving Shuli and Basel outside playing at being goats – possibly the only ones in NW1.

  • Laura Marks CBE is founder of Mitzvah Day, chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and an interfaith consultant – (commongood.uk.com).