We finally got our garden in. It's not a huge plot - about 60 x 20, but we have planted tomatoes, peppers, & onions for salsa, cucumbers for canning pickles, watermelon, pumpkin, and cantaloupe, squash, lots of blue lake beans for daddy, and spinach and lettuce (which I am rarely successful in growing). And last, but not least, an eggplant which I never seem to manage to grow, but I'll try again. My dream is to be able to make eggplant parmesan like the Olive Garden.Apparently, that there electric fence is pretty powerful! At least according to Byron who touched it to see if it worked. It pushed him back onto the ground several feet and made his heart race more than just a bit. I wonder how the horse will react. In the meantime, she doesn't appear too interested, its actually the hogs and rabbits we are concerned about for now. We wondered if we shouldn't put one more fence row down there to keep some smaller varmits out.
We spread hay between the rows, hoping to keep weeds down. I think I have heard of that being done? We certainly have plenty of hay, our horse doesn't seem to like hay much. 
I had never planted tomatoes this way before. I used the gallon size cans with top and bottom off and it really made planting them easy. Someone suggested this as a way to protect them from something or other. But just from a planting perspective it made things easier, tomatoes are peculiar and I filled the can with good organic gardening soil. My dad always says you plant a tomato plant deep, over half the stem is planted, snipping off the lower branches and always put fertilizer in the bottom before you plant them. He always has nice tomatoes, so he must be doing something right. I'm going to try to work in some newspaper around my smaller seedlings to prevent weeds, but I'm glad to get the hardest part done.
Today, I am planning to help Gracie put in her "Secret Garden" in the woods. She has always loved the book and is so excited about having her own little plot.
On another note, we had a total parenting fail this week with the middle child. And this one falls on me. Byron and I agreed I would handle sex talks with the girls. Gracie is pretty naive and hasn't asked many questions, and I haven't offered. Our oldest asked young and I was able to give the cartoon version and as she grew information was easily added to that basic framework of knowledge. Gracie on the other hand has been highly exposed to many different animals and their ways, but hasn't applied these same principals to her thoughts about humans. So... long story short - I waited too late for said talk and her knowledge exceeded my comfort level and instead of the cartoon version, she knew quite a bit about anatomy and wanted answers to more specific questions. All this equals - awkward talk with mama. Anyway, the moral of this cautionary tale - speak to them young about such things, and allow maturity to add knowledge in smaller snippets over the years. A lengthy discourse on anatomy & logistics from an older child just might put you & them over the edge! She was about as overwhelmed as I was at the end of our conversation.
I know they have these excellent Christian books that are supposed to help you with these things, you read them together and its a wonderful experience, but these just never appealed to me. I don't want to dwell on the topic or revisit it each time the book is picked up. These things are never easy, I suppose. Why couldn't they all be boys, then it would all fall on my husband's shoulders? Anyway!
:) Have a beautiful week!
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