I love my hubby, and I love our hobbies.

Wade and I both really believe in the idea of having hobbies.  It keeps you interesting and it is mind stimulating.  Of course, even though we're newlyweds, we don't have to do EVERYthing together. So, while Wade has adapted guns (mostly shot guns for skeet and bird hunting) as his hobby, I find more of an affinity for GLUE guns, as I've recently been into crafting, card making, and wreath making (there will be a blog on that another day, I'm sure).  But one thing we have always enjoyed doing together is working in the garden.  Two years ago, when we were seriously dating, but not yet engaged, we planted a Japanese Red Maple tree in the front of the house.  It's still quite small, but we wanted something slower growing.
Last year, we cut down and VERY large and intrusive Magnolia Tree from the backyard.  I kind of felt like we were "killing" something, and trying to be eco-friendly type people, we decided we could only cut down the tree if we planted a new tree in a better spot in the yard that wouldn't grow to be so offensive in the yard.  So, we decided on a beautiful Indian Pink Dogwood, that will be our "Anniversary Tree", since we planted it the year we got married.

You can't see well from the picture, but it has lots of buds on it just waiting to bust open any day!! We'll post a better picture once that happens....

Our project for this year is again a major overhaul of the front yard. Two weeks ago...yeah, that beautiful day we had before it snowed like 4 inches, remember that?...Wade ripped out all the unruly holly bushes and boxwoods which were in our front beds. So now, the front has gone from this...

To this......

And everything is gone, except a puny little Azalea and Butterfly Bush that need to find a new home somewhere in the backyard :)

We have everything planned out for some Laurels and Kaleidescope Abelia.  Weather Pending...we hope to have some nice new "AFTER" pictures for you soon.  Stay tuned....

Our other gardening project under way, is seeds for our vegetable garden. Yeah, we have some hydroponics growing down in the basement! HaHa! Hydroponic Tomatoes maybe...hehe. Anyhow, these are how my babies began.

This was about 5 days after planting...
 Aren't they just soooo cute!!!

 

And this is what they look like now, about 2 weeks after planting....

 

 These seeds are for cherry tomatoes, big boy tomatoes and peppers. We usually also plant cucumbers, lettuce, beans, herbs, and I want to experiment with some other things as well. I also wanted to show you all that this grow light system was an AWESOME and EASY DIY project my hubby saw at Home Depot.  It's made out of PVC pipes and joints, a chain, and fluorescent lights. We have the light on a timer to go off for about 8 hours overnight.  This year we also added a heating mat under the seeds to keep them a little warmer, because the basement can be so cool.  It seems to have made a difference.  If anyone wants any of my plants, let me know, because I have definitely started more than I plan to plant. I'm sure I can find takers though!!!  Here is a picture of our DIY set-up. For more specific info, you can email me.

 Well, that's our plan for the weekend (in between basketball games of course). Go UK! Go VCU!