The Garden In April

With the weather so beautiful, everything is popping in the garden.  Here is some of what is blooming or about to bloom in our garden.

Fernleaf Peony

Fernleaf Peony

Magnolia 'Leonard Messel'

Border garden

Fairy Gardening Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden -- Book Review

 

Fairy Gardening Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden by Julie Bawden-Davis & Beverly Turner is a whole new area of gardening for me.  Miniature gardening is the latest trend in gardening.  Fairy and miniature gardens have been made fun of with comments like "It's like playing with dolls."   It is not in that there is a living component.  Fairy &  miniature gardening can be done indoors, outdoors or both, just as we do with some tropical plants that only summer outdoors.  The cool thing about this type of gardening is that it is portable.  You can move it to a table or to an area where you are partying.  It can be added to a quiet nook where relaxation and conversion with a friend is the purpose of the garden.  Some people have their fairy or miniature garden mirror their home garden.  In the miniature garden it is so easy to rearrange the plants, furniture, fairies chickens, roosters, bicycles or even a whole stream.  In the fairy or miniature garden you can have watering cans, tools wheel barrows, urns, bird feeders, gazebos, arches, fences, bridges adirondak chairs, stepping stones, and gazing balls.  There are many accessories to use in a miniature garden.  I also thought you could have a toy soldier garden or a seasonal garden.  I would like to have  a toadstool garden with morels and houses in the larger mushrooms.  The Fairy Gardening Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden book by Julie Bawden-Davis & Beverly Turner from Skyhorse Publishing will teach you landscaping skills, give you ideas and encourage you to be imaginative.  It is also a gardening activity where your children can participate in .  You can even have them create their own fairy or miniature garden.  This is a great book with numerous inspirational colour pictures.

Brock University's Harlem Shake

What is the Harlem Shake?
The Harlem Shake: a dance move popularized by New York DJ Baauer may be the fastest-spreading meme on Canadian Campuses. . . ever? The jig is simpler than Gangnam Style: one person, usually wearing a mask, flails around unnoticed until suddenly, through the miracle of editing, everyone joins in.
See full article at oncampus.macleans.ca

Official Brock Harlem Shake Video  

on YouTube

Brock Harlem Shake Goes Viral Causes S5K Damage
St. Catharines Standard Article

Brock's Harlem Shake at Market.

Security Watching Brock's Harlem Shake

Cleaners blocked off doors to clean up mess.

Damaged Chairs, & Tables

Nessie, Summer & Winter

Summer Nessie

Winter Nessie

Update to Snowmageddon

Official total of Snowfall in 24 hours:  30 cm = 12 inches.  That's the most snow we have had since 1984 - 29 years ago.  St. Catharines bore the brunt of this snowstorm.

Nessie is completely buried now except for her Santa hat.

This rhodo is our meteorologist.  We do take into consideration what the weatherman says but most times we take a look outside the front door to see how the rhodo looks.  Our names for him are either "Perky MacPerkerton" or "Droopy MacDrooperton".  Either way we know how to dress for the day.  He has never been wrong!!

Rhododendron

 

Our street - unplowed

 Getting up this morning, I noticed the street has been plowed.  Now I need to shovel the end of the driveway otherwise we are not getting out this morning.

Snowmageddon

Well we got clobbered today.  It was definitely the Snowmageddon they have been predicting for the past 4 years. Not sure what the final total will be, but  I know I shoveled at least 10 inches of snow from our driveway. 

Nessie looks like she's drowning!

Nessie is covered with snow.  Both humps and tail are covered. 

Finishing off the steps.

Me supervising LOL!

The west side of our driveway, yes we do have a slight bank as our driveway slopes.  Our house is a raised bungalow & the garage is under the living room.  Imagine shoveling and hiffing the snow up and over this bank.  It got worse as the day when on.  Four times shoveling today and counting.  The thing covered with snow beside the metasequioa tree is an inukshuk.  Not that you can tell.

Snow covered inukshuk beside Metasequioa tree.

Every winter the snowplow operator has trouble knowing where the end of our driveway is.  We get a lot of packed snow at the end of our driveway making it hard to shovel and actually get out of our driveway.  He doesn't seem to know where the curb is.   Bruce put these reflectors at the end of our driveway to see if this would help the situation.  Today there was obviously more snow on the east side of the driveway than the west.

West side of the driveway.

East side of the driveway.

Standing beside the mound of snow on the east side of the driveway.

Me finishing off the steps.  Snow, snow & more snow.

Fresh Produce Totals

When food comes into your local food bank it gets weighed whether it be perishable or non-perishable.  This gives the agency an idea of what is being donated year by year.

Totals for 2012

Project Share

Niagara Falls

128,074 lbs - from farmers, grocery stores, community gardeners & neighbours.

Community Care

St. Catharines & Thorold

16,930 lbs - from Harvest Days, August, September & October. 

(an increase of over 400 lbs from 2011)