So the saga continues, and we have another batch of corten steel beds added to our yard. In the curved bed, which follows the concrete, we will be creating a privacy screen by growing citrus along a trellis. This will help block the view of one of our neighbors. Then, the other big steel beds will be for avocado trees.

We love the look of these beds so much, and while they are a bit costly, we feel it is worth the investment. Ben still does build some wooden garden beds here and there, but our steel beds are our favorite. We love the way they weather and they just have such a nice presence. Our garden has changed so much these past couple months, and I keep meaning to film a short tour of it. I think it would be fun to see how it progresses each month because Ben is always adding and changing things. One day, when everything is lush and green (and full-grown), it will be special to look back at how our backyard has transformed.

See when we first put our corten steel beds here, this is our steel vegetable beds, and the beginnings of one of our citrus trellises.

I mentioned the article in this huzzah post, but we finally got our hands on a copy of the newspaper Ben and our backyard orchard is featured in. The article, which can be read here, shares tiny tidbits about our yard (though it got the sizing wrong) and how to create a backyard orchard culture of your own. I’m proud of all the work Ben has put into it, and I’m very happy to reap all the benefits of it. The girls especially love being able to go the backyard to pick out their own fruit.

If you want to see other gardening posts, check here. This week, Ben has a post coming up that shares all about our rainwater tanks, so be sure to check back if you might be interested.

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This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

California is super thankful for the abundance of rain we received last week, but I’m also thankful that the sunny days are back (at least until Thursday when it’s supposed to rain again).

A local paper is coming to interview Ben and take pictures of our backyard orchard culture, so Saturday was spent cleaning everything up. With all the rain we’ve been having, weeds have taken over and leaves were all over the place. We all worked together to pull weeds, prune, sweep, pick up dead leaves, and make everything look pretty. #teamwork

We had our third Christmas celebration with my family this past Saturday and my mom made such a wonderful feast. That was round 3 of the girls getting lovingly spoiled, and we have one more round to go with Ben’s family here in California.

I need a basic black tee, so I’m waiting for Everlane to roll out their wide leg crop pants at the end of February (if you order two or more items, you get free shipping). I’m looking forward to some of their new items coming out, especially those pants I mentioned.

My ultimate favorite candle scent is the Volcano Blue Capri Candle. I’m running low on them, so I need to stock up soon.

I love this patio covering. I would love to see how we can get our own made for one portion of our yard.

Based on my WEAR board (and looking at my own closet), I’ve realized that I love denim dresses and wearing blue.

This vintage quilted crop jacket is cute, so is this vintage Armani denim dress.

With the rain, lighting hasn’t been great, so I haven’t wanted to photograph any new crafts to share. I’m hoping we get to share our first kid craft for the year later this week.

Ben and I were blessed by our church morning and evening gathering yesterday, and all the sharing of life that happened in between. I’m praying God use these times to imprint our children’s hearts with the sweetness of following Jesus and that they would see Christ is better than all.

Since today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, you get my huzzah post on a Monday. Enjoy your Monday friends!

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile now, then you know how eating well is important to us, which has led to us growing our own veggies and now our own fruits (with our mini backyard orchard culture). Well, we’ve been working on this garden for about 4 years now and it just dawned on us that we weren’t using a hose safe for drinking, thus not safe for watering our fruits and veggies! Our previous hose was not lead or phthalate free (probably filled with that junk!), so our water was running through those dangerous substances.

We garden because we want to feed our bodies and our kids with good things (and we really enjoy it) and here we were watering our garden with something that might not be so good. It was such an oh-my-goodness-we’re-such-dingbats moment. Ben immediately did some research (he researches everything!) and ended up finding a hose that is safe for drinking (and lead and phthalate free), therefore safe to use for our fruits and veggies. He ordered this Colorite Element hose, this Dramm sprayer, and this Dramm valve shut off to go along with it, and we like them all so far! Ben likes it so much that he will now drink the water from the hose when we’re outside working on the garden.

If you’re wondering, this isn’t a sponsored post (I’d tell you if it was), nor contain any affiliated links, but I just wanted to share it in case it might be an oversight on your part too. It’s something we just honestly overlooked and we want to be confident that we’re feeding our fruits and veggies with good things because those same fruits and veggies feed our family. We’re glad we finally got our hose on the right track.

P.S. If you look on the sidebar, where the categories are (right under our photobooth picture), I now have a category up for gardening! It’s a big part of what we do together as a family, so I thought it was about time it got it’s own section. Thanks Joy for helping put that up!

It’s the new year. Wow! That was fast. 2012 was quite good and while trials were experienced, we’re thankful and looking forward to see what will come of the new year and how God will grow us even more. The year for us has already started quite busy as we (Ben) has undertaken the task of planting a backyard orchard culture (more to come on that later) in our yard and I have been working on a few things myself. The big girls got to spend a few days with their Auntie Linda and Uncle John while Ben and I took care of the babies and some other things. We’re all back together now and we’re ready to get back into our routine with school and work tomorrow.

Some learned, links, and thoughts for the new year…

Serve my girls with even more gladness this year. I think I easily get frustrated that I lose the serving with gladness part much too quickly. I am here to serve them, not the other way around, so it’s something I need to improve on.

This post about God will be doing 10,000 things in your life, though you may only be aware of 3.

Love Allison’s post on contentment.

I want to work on memorizing more scripture like this lady. Scripture will help me fight the constant battle within my heart to love God more above all else.

I’m thankful for hobbies such as crafting and blogging. It’s an outlet that I really enjoy and I’m thankful for all the opportunities that have come from it. And really, much of the thanks are to you my readers. Thank you for taking notice and sharing what you like here.

Don’t let useless things rob you of your joy. Stop reading the blog that annoys you (I know it’s hard as I am totally guilty of this! And if you don’t care for this space, don’t waste your time here, please don’t.), don’t sweat the small stuff , and whatever the circumstance, find the fun and engage it.

I had a few other things I wanted to link to, but now I can’t remember. Oh well. I have some new ideas for this space along with continuing along with other things I have already been doing. If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see here, things I could do better, or any other blog thoughts in general, please share.

I’m quite excited about this new year. Last year was full of surprises and I’m sure this new year will be much of the same. Life is just like that though, there are always surprises, good and bad. We’re just six days in, but hello 2013, let’s do this!

I shared our cor-ten steel beds last week and now here they are with our tomatoes. These were taken over a month ago, so they’ve grown like gang busters since then. We went much more simpler in our tomato plantings this year than previous years. Last year, we had 17 varieties and we went all our with fresh fish heads in the soil (read about it here), but this year we only did 10 varieties. We didn’t have the time to go the fish head route, so we pretty much just used E.B. Stone Organic Tomato and Vegetable Food, which we mixed into the soil per package directions.

The varieties we went with this year are Pork Chop, Dancing with Smurfs (this one is supposed to come out blue!), Brandywine, Green Tiger, Fireworks, PB Tie Dye, Cuostralee, Copia, Gold Keeper, and Wild Everglades.

Every year the Seems like every year we get attacked by spider mites. It actually wasn’t until the end of the previous years season when Ben learned what was obliterating the tomatoes prematurely. Last year we tried going with predatory mites, but it seems like we might’ve released them too late. The key is early detection. You can rid of them by spraying the leaves with water once you notice them. They like dry conditions and it gets pretty dry out here in the summer.

We created a trellis with our tomatoes and used 7 foot stakes and cattle fencing that we cut to fit, and just attached them using wire. Last year, we did the arched cattle fencing, but since we moved the vegetable garden to a new spot, it wouldn’t work here, so we just did it straight up.  This way we just weave the tomato plants through.

The girls all get involved in planting them, in one way or another, and they each have their own tomato plant. I’m so excited for to see how our harvest turns out. They’re a lot taller and fuller now, so I’m hoping that in a few weeks we will get to enjoy some fresh home-grown tomatoes.