My Forgetful, Unforgettable Uncle Mose

Every family has its eccentric relative. Ours was the
legendary Mose Nisly, 1896-1956.

Looking through a collection of old family photos recently I ran across a rare one of my late uncle Mose.

As one of my mom's older brothers, Mose was a part of our household for a memorable year or so when I was a young teen. Never married, he always lived with one of his various siblings, and when he could no longer support himself, some of his ten living brothers and sisters took turns taking him in and caring for him.

Uncle Mose was somewhat mentally challenged, the result of a high fever he experienced with a case of meningitis in his childhood, I was told. I don't recall family members saying much about his youth, but there were numerous stories told about his eccentric traits as an adult.

For instance, while he was certainly a man of integrity and with a good heart, Mose was incredibly tight with his money. He even resisted having his work clothes washed regularly, fearing they would wear out sooner as a result. Then there was the story about how he lamented the cost of shipping his favorite rocking chair by rail from Iowa to Virginia when he came to live with us. Outraged by what he was charged by the railroad company, he protested with, “but the train was making the trip here anyway!”

Another of Moses’ traits was his absentmindedness. He was constantly forgetting where he had put things, then blaming others for having misplaced or taken them. All of this added to his generally unhappy and negative outlook on life, and to always seeing himself as a martyr and a victim.

In spite of his general forgetfulness, though, there was one category of memories Mose could recall in the greatest of detail. He could recite example after example of people who had mistreated him throughout his life. So when I heard Garrison Keillor once describe someone as having “Irish Alzheimer's,” a condition that results in people “forgetting everything but their grievances,” I immediately thought of my uncle.

But we can always learn from people like that, and realize how important it is to wrap lots of gratitude around us every day of our lives. Unlike Mose, we can practice living from the assets side of our memory ledger rather than the debit side.

Which reminds me of how much of our emotional and spiritual health depends on how we do our mental bookkeeping, whether we celebrate the generous deposits made every day into our emotional savings accounts, and whether we can then live out of a sense of abundance rather than in a constant state of victimhood and scarcity.

Thanks, Uncle Mose, for helping teach me that kind of lesson.

The Missing Half Of Our Children's Education

Both good values and good work skills can be
learned at a very young age.

Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their life.
Proverbs 22:6 (Good News Translation)

The book of Proverbs was intended not only to teach children good character, but to help them learn habits and life skills needed to be contributing members of their community. It concludes with a description of a "virtuous woman," one who conducts a profitable business along with skillfully managing a busy, hardworking household.

During the Great Depression many rural families suffered extreme hardships due to low prices for their farm products as well as from the effects of drought and the Dust Bowl that ravaged many parts of the country. But farm families were generally better off than their urban counterparts, since they knew how to grow, harvest and preserve much of the food essential for survival. Every member of the family was vital to the work of cultivating garden plots, taking care of fruit trees and berry patches and caring for the animals that provided meat, eggs and milk for many of their meals. Most of their clothes were sewn by hand or made with treadle sewing machines, then patched and made to last as long as possible.

I was born at the very end of that era, but learned early on that I was a valued and needed part of our family's farming enterprise. From as long as I can remember, I was apprenticed by my parents and seven older siblings in learning to do whatever work necessary to help make ends meet.

Today children grow up learning primarily how to be consumers rather than actual producers and providers of needed services. As a result of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of large scale manufacturing, most are separated from their parent's workplaces and are unable to learn their parents' work skills. Even farming operations now tend to require massive acres of land and complex equipment for the large scale production of grain, meat or other specialty crops. In other words, they have become more like efficient food factories than family-centered production systems meeting their own and their neighbors' needs.

As a result, children today are a significant drain on their family's finances. It now costs an estimated $233,610 to raise a child through age 17 in a US middle-income family of four, according to a report by the US Department of Agriculture.

In earlier times, newborns were more likely to be regarded as welcome additions to the family work force, as extra kitchen or laundry workers, or additional plow hands. And in villages and towns all over the US children were served as apprentices and helpers in their family-run bakeries, tailor shops, shoe repair businesses and multiple other enterprises often attached to, or next to, their dwellings.

The educational benefits of this arrangement were enormous, and our current educational institutions, either at home and in our consolidated schools, are failing to provide anything comparable to it.

In our own Shenandoah Valley, once known as the "Breadbasket of the South," most of us would starve without access to supermarkets, restaurants and fast-food establishments. At a recent local science fair, our granddaughter and one of her friends were the only students among over a hundred entries who had an exhibit featuring a life science--a home made incubator hatching some baby chicks in real time.

Were we to experience a serious economic downturn, our Old Order Mennonite neighbors, whose children receive only eight years of formal education, will have many more of the fundamental skills needed for their survival and wellbeing than the rest of us.

So when and how can we teach more of the lost art of gardening, food processing and food preserving and preparation skills that may become more and more necessary for all of us? And believe me, our children may be much more eager learners than we imagine. They don't hate work, they just don't like boring, repetitious work, like the rest of us. Traditionally, much of their creative play has been in imitation of adult work. They love making things, creating things.

Not that we will not always remain consumers who benefit from others' work. Consuming remains a necessary half of any economic system. But the other half of our focus, at home as well as in our schools, must be in training our children to become creative and effective producers.

In Robert Bly's 1990 book, "Iron John--A Book about Men," he writes,

"by the middle of the twentieth century in Europe and North America a massive change had taken place: the father was working, but the son could not see him working. Throughout the ancient hunter societies, fathers and sons lived and worked together... in all these societies, which apparently lasted for thousands of years,  the son characteristically saw his father working at all times of the day and all seasons of the year. When the son no longer sees that, what happens? ...a hole appears in the son's psyche."  

Preparing For The Wrong Wars--How The Defense Establishment Has Failed Us

The 2020 Pentagon budget reflects yet another increase, and is $658.4 billion for the base budget and an additional $71.5 billion for the contingency (war) budget.

Some nations put their trust in chariots and war horses,
but we will trust in the name of the Lord our Sovereign.
Psalm 20:7 

In his farewell address, George Washington warned against engaging in conflicts abroad, stating, 

"... a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification."

In spite of Washington's counsel against "foreign entanglements," the US has, since WWII, become a virtual empire with over 800 military bases around the world, ranging from small radar installations to sprawling complexes housing thousands of troops.

But is this ongoing outlay of scarce resources really keeping us safer? Have our invasions of Vietnam (nearly 60,000 US troops killed and countless more maimed), and more recently of Iraq and Afghanistan, resulted in our really being better defended? And has our nuclear strategy of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD) resulted in the world becoming more secure? 

Or have we actually created ever more enemies and become even more vulnerable as a result?

In spite of the trillions the nation has invested in its "national defense" we have recently found ourselves defenseless against a pernicious and more dangerous enemy than we were ever prepared for, the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In hindsight, what if the $11.4 billion in the current US Pentagon budget for Lockheed Martin's 79 F-35 Joint Strike fighters alone (the world's most expensive weapon) had been spent on helping prevent and combat future pandemics? And how much testing, how many face masks and other protective gear might those billions have funded? 

In the aftermath of World War I (in which France had lost over half of its armed forces) the French government built a 900-mile Maginot Line of concrete bunkers, tunnels and gun batteries involving 1.5 million cubic meters of concrete, 150 tons of steel and at a cost of over 3 billion pre-war francs. The most heavily armed section of this expensive wall was along its 280-mile border with Germany, since the France aim was to prevent an invasion of the kind they had experienced in the prior war.

For the record, Germany did not pay for this massive  wall along its French border!

Meanwhile, Hitler's Luftwaffe (air force) made the Maginot Line  far less relevant, and Germany chose to invade France by way of a tank-led campaign through Belgium and through a more easily  penetrable part of the Maginot Line. 

There should be a lesson in this for the US today, to be wary of preparing for wars in the way they were fought in the past, and to reinvest more in diplomacy, development and in addressing health and food crises around the world. 

Without some measure of justice everywhere there can be no lasting peace anywhere.

Open Forum Guest Post: Gemeinschaft Home--Paying Forward

You can get more information on the Gemeinschaft Home web page.

This op-ed piece by a JMU professor emeritus appeared in the Daily News-record yesterday:

Gemeinschaft Home is an innovative non-profit organization serving the community through residential and non-residential programs. The Gemeinschaft Home is located just outside the city limits of Harrisonburg in a large, renovated farmhouse. Such a semi-country environment provides residents an opportunity to restore a sense of wholeness to their lives while being supported by quality food, shelter, counseling, and job coaching while they experience a model for living responsibly on a daily basis.

Organized in June of 1985, Gemeinschaft Home began as a residential, transitional facility for individuals who have been released from incarceration and have a probation obligation with the Virginia Department of Corrections. Gemeinschaft Home collaborates closely with local court services, attorneys, and probation officers as well as re-entry specialists and counselors working inside the prison system to ensure that each resident who enrolls in the program has the vital resources and support to return to normal living conditions after their incarceration.

At present there are over 2.2 million men and women incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States of America. In the state of Virginia, the average daily population in the state’s correctional institutions was 29,333 as of January 2020. Notably, the probation and parole load at the same time in Virginia was 69,651.

In the state of Virginia, over 200,000 men are released from state prisons each year. During the same year, 2020, some 53,037 women will be released from jails and prisons in the state. Just how do we deal with each one of these human beings.

Originally the house had a capacity of 17. The capacity was increased to 22 following remodeling in 1993. In 1996, Gemeinschaft built an addition to the main house, which allowed the capacity to increase to 41 residents plus one emergency bed. This capacity has now risen to 44 beds for residents.

Residents arrive at Gemeinschaft Home with little or no money and need significant support during their initial days following release. In addition to full-time room and board for a minimum of 90 days, the Gemeinschaft program involves mandatory counseling while residents are required to actively seek and/or maintain employment while in residence. All residents are obligated to participate in daily chores and maintenance of communal living spaces and to observe all house rules, particularly curfew and abstinence from alcohol and drugs.

The residents of Gemeinschaft have demonstrated a strong motivation to better themselves and rebuild their lives. As fellow human beings, we would be well-served to paraphrase a time-tested Boy’s Town [Nebraska] mantra which suggests we might never stand so tall as when we bend to lift another human being. That’s both our opportunity and our obligation — to help others in any way we can.

Currently, Gemeinschaft Home has a staff of 18, including a program manager, a residence life coordinator [who serves as a case manager], a facilities manager, a food manager, shift supervisors, and other paid staff. In addition, there are a number of volunteers from the local community who serve in various roles, including interns, mentors, and drivers. Regular volunteers offer such courses and workshops in areas ranging from creative writing to financial management.

Gemeinschaft Home is an experiment. It is an experiment that works. It is an experiment that works because people help. People help by serving as interns, on-site volunteers, tutors, providing office and clerical help or a number of other volunteer jobs. People help by providing donations — both large and small, one time, monthly or annually.

John D. Stone, PhD, is professor emeritus at James Madison University and lives in Harrisonburg.

An Art Buchwald Column: "Thou Shalt Not Kill"

Jewish satirist Buchwald (1925-2007) was one of
 the most widely read US columnists of all time.

I recently found this copy of a newspaper column among some papers I had saved many years ago. 

Moses (nervously): Lord, it looks like you'll have to do a revision of your Ten Commandments... especially here where it says, "Thou shalt not kill."

The Lord: It certainly seems perfectly clear and concise.

Moses: But it's causing an awful lot of hassle among your theologians... For example, they can't agree on when life begins; some say at conception, some at the fetal stage, and some not until the moment of birth.

The Lord (puzzled): But why would anyone want to kill an unborn child?

Moses: Perhaps on the chance that it might be deformed.

The Lord: In that case, why don't they wait to see whether it's deformed before they kill it?

Moses: Oh, all theologians oppose killing children after they're born. Except, of course, at a distance of more than 500 yards.

The Lord: Why 500 yards?

Moses: Only in wartime, Sir. It's terrible to kill a child with a rifle bullet and an atrocity to do so with a bayonet. But theologians agree that it is permissible, if regrettable, to blow them up with high powered explosives, as long as they're dropped from an airplane or fired from a missile, particularly if you do so to save them from atheistic Communism.

The Lord: I suppose it would do that.

Moses: Of course, once a child is 18 he may be killed in any fashion on the battlefield except with poison gas. The use of poison gas, in war, theologians agree, is a great atrocity.

The Lord: Then where do they use it?

Moses: Only in state operated gas chambers. It is used there because it is the most humane way to kill people.

The Lord: But if it's the most humane... Never mind. Is that all?

Moses: O yes, germ warfare. It is also unthinkable to save people from atheistic Communism by inflicting them with any fatal sickness--except radiation sickness, which can cause a lingering and painful death.
     So, Lord, I have a proposed draft of a change here... It begins "Thou shalt not kill any person between the ages of minus 4 months to 18 years at a distance of less than 500 yards with any of the following...

The Lord: Never mind, Moses. I have a better idea. Gabriel? Gabriel, come here. And bring your trumpet.

I have been unable to find this on line in order to provide a link to it. Whoever holds the copyright may feel free to contact me. 

Guest Post: A Story Of Homelessness And Grief

Jodi with her beloved Kati, who died in a car crash in 2017.

Jodi Abt is a member of the Broadway Presbyterian Church and an active part of Faith in Action's current campaign to promote affordable housing. I post her heart-wrenching story, slightly edited, with her blessing.

In 2010, my 15 year old daughter and I lost everything we had. My husband, without warning, abandoned us. Months prior to his leaving, without my knowledge, he had stopped making our house and car payments and stopped paying our bills. As a result, my home was in foreclosure, my car was repossessed and all my debts were in arrears. 

To top it off, he filed for personal bankruptcy, filed only his own taxes that year and filed for divorce. Kati and I would have been homeless had not my sister and brother-in-law taken us in. With what I was earning I was unable to find affordable housing, and my credit was destroyed as a result of my husband’s actions.

The only places in the area that offered emergency care or funding were Mercy House, First Step or the Salvation Army EmergencyShelter. At this time, their shelter was full and there were no funds available for families in an emergency situation, nor were any affordable housing programs in existence. I was making only a modest salary as a massage therapist. As a single mother with no child support, I still had to send my daughter to school and pay for all of her supplies and the basics a normal teenage girl requires.

In 2011, we found a house to rent and moved from my sister’s home. In 2012, we moved again because I could not afford the rent there any longer. So we found ourselves at the door of the Salvation Army emergency shelter, terrified and defeated, not knowing what to expect.

Inside was an incredibly diverse group of people, many with stories similar to ours. Kati and I were welcomed with opened arms. We learned that not all homeless people were drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals or lazy bums but for the most part people who were down on their luck and with nowhere else to go. There were hard working individuals and families where both parents worked to try to make ends meet. They were also on a waiting list for affordable housing, where it can take over a year before your name comes to the top of the list. Meanwhile shelters generally set limits as to how long you are permitted to remain there.

In 2013 I suffered a heart attack and had triple-bypass surgery. My cardiologists did not want me to live at the shelter after my surgery for obvious reasons, exposure to germs, etc. We went back to my sister’s home briefly to recuperate. After a month, I was put back into the hospital for another heart related problem. 

It was during this time that Kati was forced to get us an apartment, on her own. She was advised by the Shelter Manager on who to contact and how to seek assistance. Through the help of Mercy House funds, she was able to get us a 3-bedroom apartment. It was too large, and more than I could afford, but it was the only place that was available in the area. To make matters worse, I was forced to retire at age 62 due to my poor health.

Kati was now attending college full-time and working part time to help me with finances. Yet we still struggled. Ultimately we moved back to the Salvation Army Shelter in 2014. This time I was able to obtain a position as a Housing Monitor in the Shelter, which was quite convenient.

Fast forward to 2017. We were now living in our car. From 2010 to 2017, I had a partial hysterectomy, triple bypass surgery, a gall bladder removal, and eye surgery, all while still trying to recover from the serious debt situation I was still in. And during that time I had also fallen and broken my back.

Kati and I were finally on a waiting list to receive Section 8 Housing. Previously, we had either been given the dates too late for Open Enrollment, or the Housing Authority did not have dates yet established for an open enrollment period. Somehow though, in February of 2017, our names got placed on that wonderful elusive list.

By 2017 we were living in our car, our “mobile home.” I was completely unable to work. Kati worked full-time and was a full-time college student.

On May 26, 2017, Kati and I went to visit my sister on her birthday. After leaving my sister’s home and grabbing a bite to eat, Kati and I headed back to Harrisonburg.

It was on this trip back to town that my life changed in an instant when we were hit head-on by a drunk driver. The driver who hit us burned alive in his mother’s vehicle. I was the only person to walk away from the wreckage.

Upon impact, I hit my head and was knocked unconscious, then awakened to the smell of smoke, opened my door, spitting out glass, plastic and dirt. I went around to Kati’s side of the car to get her out, but she was trapped in the car with our car's engine on her lap. 

When I realized the severity of what had happened, I started screaming for help. Kati could only flutter her eyes and make moaning sounds as if trying to talk. Two ladies came running to our aid. They assured me that she would be fine and that she was responding to them. With that assurance and only for that reason, I agreed to go to the hospital. It was in the ambulance that I had learned of the death of the man who hit us. Before I had even been placed on the stretcher, though, I had to pray for him and offer forgiveness. 

I did not learn of Katis’s fate until I had been seen by a doctor. Here I was, strapped to a backboard, unable to move, learning of the death of my child. I couldn’t scream, run around in a panic, tear at my hair, or hit the police officer who delivered this horrendous news. I could only lie there with tears streaming down my cheek.

Not only did I lose this incredible child of mine, who was only 22 at the time, I also lost my home. Where do I go now? The Salvation Army was out of the question and Mercy House was once again without funds. The Housing Authority is not equipped to handle emergencies. So, of course, I was back at my sister’s home.

After the crash, I was in a state of shock. I could no longer think clearly and would start a sentence and forget what I was saying after the third or fourth word. I forgot names and meanings of words. I could not convey any cohesive thoughts or carry on a conversation. I was no longer recognizable as the person I had been. I was upset and angry at myself and did not know what to do with my life. 

My one saving grace was that I had the Lord to lean on. I felt His constant presence and had many a conversation with Him. Finally, after two weeks, I got the answer I had been praying for. It occurred to me that I should “trick my brain” by writing a letter to Kati every night before I went to sleep. I pretended that she was still a little girl at camp, or visiting Grandma. In my mind, I knew she would be coming home to me, hence the “trick” part, because I knew better. 

This was such a comfort to me, though, as I wrote all of my emotions, fears, uncertainty about my future, the upheaval of my life without her, and how much my heart wrenched every moment at her loss. Most nights I closed with tear-stained pages. I did this every night for 18 months. I documented all of the events in my life, doctors visits, funeral arrangements, and how I got another vehicle on her birthday that year.

Once a letter was written, I never read it again, but I have every one I wrote to her in a 3-ring binder entitled “Kati’s Letters”. I thank God for that beautiful way of mourning her loss and feeling her presence. Day by day, life got a little more bearable and I realized that I faced a future on my own. I went to housing and altered my application to find living space for 1 person.

Finally in Spring of 2018 I received a letter from the Housing Authority asking about my continued interest in remaining on their waiting list. I responded to the letter stating that I still needed affordable housing, and that I was still interested. In the summer of that year I was interviewed for an apartment, but still not approved. It was not until October of 2018 that I was approved. By this time, I had turned 67, which I believe made my approval easier to obtain. I moved into my apartment in December of 2018, where I have been ever since.

You can see that it took nearly 2 years for me to get into a home I could afford. My story is typical, however, not everyone has family or friends willing or able to help them during this waiting period. I was blessed with a loving sister and brother-in-law who allowed me and Kati to disrupt their lives and routines.

There are many hard working people who make too much money to qualify for local and federal housing programs, but don’t earn enough to afford a home where they feel safe and comfortable. This is a travesty.

This time of year, many people sacrifice for others is an important expression of their faith. But giving up or sacrificing doesn’t just mean monetary gifts. Giving time and offering hospitality to others on a regular basis can do much to improve their quality of life.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my story.

Attention, World: "Listen Up, Slow Down And Give Up Your Violent Ways" - God Almighty

This shows a only a tiny fraction of the thousands of abandoned war planes at 
Tucson's massive bone yard, a sign of our violence toward the earth and its people

God brings an end to war.

God breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

God burns chariots with fire.

Be still (Stop fighting!), and know that I am God!

Psalm 46:9-10

    I don't normally see death-dealing disasters as divinely ordained to teach us mortals a lesson.
    But I do believe that in God's economy nothing needs to go to waste, and that every terrible event can be transformed into something for our good.
     So what lessons might God want us to learn from the coronavirus pandemic?

Holy Week Lesson 1. We humans need to slow down and listen up. Listen to Jesus, listen to the apostles and prophets of the ages, listen to the wisdom in texts of scripture and in the words of God's children.

Here is a reflection by Kitty O'Meara:

And the people stayed home. And read books,

and listened, and rested, and exercised,

and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being,

and were still. And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous,

mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,

they grieved their losses, and made new choices,

and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live

and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

- O’Meara's website http://the-daily-round.com/

Holy Week Lesson 2. We need to cut back on the kind of overconsumption that is destroying the earth. Buy less, make and bake more. Ride less, walk and bike more. Hoard less, share and serve more. Plant more trees and grow more vegetables, maintain less lawn.

This from poet and writer Lois A. Saylor, written March 20 of this year:

Then Lent Came

we gave up foolish things for Lent

a bag of sugar, 

a pound of butter

we gave up the easy 

and found it hard

our soft underbellies glistening

like pride

then Lent came like an earthquake

and gave up foolishness for us

took hammer and nails, took

    excuses, took away normal,

took away soft living

good Lent, brave Lent

slapping us with sacrifice

rejecting our burnt offerings

demanding the fasting of doing justice

loving mercy

walking humbly with 

a God we dare to say we worship

Lent broke us apart

    let us bleed

and dared us, double-dared us,

to ask God why he had forsaken us

Lois A. Saylor

copyright 2020

Holy Week Lesson 3. We must begin now to reinvest the trillions we spend on armed terror and destruction into means of ending poverty, disease and hunger around the world. We cannot serve both God and militarism, cannot afford manufacturing ever more death-dealing bombers and drone missiles while not being able to provide enough ventilators and protective gear to help keep our COVID-19 infected people alive.

Isaiah 9:4-7 (NIV):

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,

you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders,

the rod of their oppressor.

     Every warrior’s boot used in battle

     and every garment rolled in blood

     will be destined for burning,

     will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

     And he will be called

     Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

     Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

     He will reign on David’s throne

     and over his kingdom,

     establishing and upholding it

     with justice and righteousness

     from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.

     Meanwhile, there are already signs of some subsiding of war-making since the epidemic. And already the skies are clearer and air pollution is decreasing. Also, to my knowledge there have been no recent incidents of mass shootings in the US.
     Maybe some good can come out of this yet.

This May Be A Good Time To Start A Garden--How You Can Do It Without A Lot Of Expense

Our oldest grandchild, now a teenager with several of her own laying hens,
developed an early interest in nature and in gardening.

One of the things that kept many families alive during the Great Depression was their ability to grow much of their own food. And throughout the years that followed our rural farm family kept not one but two vegetable gardens, as well as numerous fruit trees. a strawberry patch and a grape arbor, along with dairy cows, pigs and chickens to supply us with fresh milk, meat and eggs.

Today many of us lack the space, time and/or the skill to grow even a fraction of the food we need. It's become all too convenient to simply shop for whatever we need at the nearby supermarket.

Until now.

Now everything begins to feel more complicated, and even risky, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

I'm primarily a hobby gardener myself, but would commend this activity as one of the more therapeutic and productive uses of your time and whatever space you can spare in your back yard. Or in your front yard, for that matter.

This week I enjoyed converting a part of our backyard flower bed into a salad garden, sowing some lettuce and radish seed among some of the flowers behind our house. And in our modest size vegetable garden, we have two rows of sugar snap peas that are thriving in the recent warm spring weather. Soon it will be time to plant our sweet corn, squash, tomatoes and green beans.

Here's how you can start a little vegetable garden in some sunny space without even investing in a tiller, or without having to hire someone to work up your soil. 

Three things are required, a shovel, some plants or seed, some newspapers, and some mulch, like grass clippings or leaves. Some homemade compost as fertilizer is also a good thing.

Simply dig some holes for your tomato, squash, cucumber, or cantaloupe plants, ones you either grow yourself or buy at your neighborhood greenhouse. Then plant them like you would tree saplings or flower plants, applying a little compost with your good soil. 

It's simple. And don't worry about neat straight rows. Be creative as you would if you were designing a flower garden. 

Next cover the grass between the plants with layers of newspaper, and cover the newspaper with some kind of mulch, preferably grass clipping or leaves that will mostly decompose by fall. This pretty much takes care of any weeds, helps retain moisture (reduces the need to irrigate), and will greatly improve the texture and fertility of the soil. Some kind of cover crop, like winter oats or wheat, can be sown in the fall and mowed down in the spring to add even more humus and richness to your soil. 

Without the usual plowing or tilling, garden crops normally grown in rows, like corn and beans, can be a challenge. But none of these plants necessarily need rows (certainly not straight ones) and one can spade whatever space needed for as many of these wonderful sources of fresh produce as desired. And then use plenty of good mulch, as above, and wait for the harvest.

I actually have a 1972 Honda tiller one of my parishioners gave me years ago, but I still mulch profusely, and after many years the soil is wonderfully easy to work with.

Having said all that, I don't consider myself a master gardener. For that kind of help you need to consult with your parents or grandparents, or see one of your Old Order Mennonite or other friends who are experienced with this. Or if you live near Harrisonburg, visit Tom Benevento and Vine and Fig, the local New Community Project location along Main Street just a block north of the Little Grille.

Happy gardening! 

And enjoy your fresh produce--and giving away some surplus zucchini squash and tomatoes.