so you wannabee a Domestik Goddess?

Those April showers are making way for long-awaited flowers, and every true gardener’s heart yearns to see those tidy rows of sprouts, promising a satisfying harvest through the months to come.

Ah, Springtime in the garden… from Wordworth’s dancing daffodils to Chaucer’s “grene and lusty May,” it’s all good — except for the harsh reality of garden pests.

Slimey Slugs and Snails, oh my!

Slugs and snails crawl into the garden at night, and leave their sticky slime all over whatever tiny bits of tender lettuce greens and flower petals they might not chew to a ragged edge or leave with great gaping holes…

Cats!

Stray cats take one look at that freshly turned, sweet, friable soil in your flower beds and say to themselves, “hey! check out the giant litter box!”

Squirrels? – please, don’t even get me started!

When all you want to do is lie in a gentle hammock and rest from your labours, watching the lovely songbirds come round for a gourmet meal — that’s when some greedy fat-tailed squirrel comes along to dangle upside down from the bird feeder, scooping out great fistfuls of expensive bird seed onto the ground as he stuffs his little rodent cheeks — guaranteed to scare away that rare shy Eastern Purple Whositbird that you’ve been dying to photograph since childhood…

Sound familiar, any of that?
Hang onto your sun-hat, then, Nelly — I’ve got the contest for you!

May Garden Giveaway Contest

Here are the fabulous prizes —

1. 
   

   SlugsAway electronic slug and snail fence

   Keep slugs and snails out of your garden without using chemicals. Safe for children and pets, it can protect your garden all season on a single nine-volt battery.




2. 
   

   CatStop automatic outdoor cat deterrent

   Keep cats out of your garden, safely and efficiently. A motion-activated burst of ultrasonic sound startles cats, and teaches them to stay away.




3. 
   

   SquirrelStop automatic spinning squirrel deterrent

   Keep your bird feeder safe from squirrels. When a squirrel climbs on to the feeder, it triggers the SquirrelStop motor and makes the feeder spin! (Ha! Let’s see you try to stay on that amusement park ride, little seed-stealing rodent!) Works with any hanging feeder weighing up to 10 lbs.

Contech Electronics, based in British Columbia, Canada, is our gracious May sponsor. They develop, manufacture and distribute a whole range of innovative technology for pets and gardens, including those 3 Fabulous Prizes I’ll be giving away to Domestik Goddess readers over the next three weeks.

Stay tuned for your chance to win!

Hint: This might be a really good time to subscribe to DomestikGoddess.com, if you haven’t already…

dVider.com has snagged hot young NYC artist David Ort for the second round of its Guest Artist series of limited edition vinyl wall decals.

Peel, stick, decorate.

Stunning.

And so much easier than waltzing into the Plaza and rippping the orginal Ort murals off its walls, no?

These wallcovering designs are only available May-July, then dVider’s on to another new guest artist…

I’m going to get into so much trouble with DJ for posting this — putting temptation in the poor man’s path! — but who could resist?

Besides, I’m sure there’s someone with a wannabe-Samurai Dad out there just desperate for a Father’s Day gift idea with more originality to it than a comic necktie or golf gear.

This is the Damascus Blade Japanese Samurai Fan Katana Sword from Handmade Sword, a thing of great beauty hand forged from a rich historical tradition.

It’s also a very real sword — “razor sharp” and not in any way a toy.
Just so you know.