A little under the weather folks -- see you tomorrow!

Sally Roth's book, Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to Your Backyard, provides comprehensive, concise, and intriguing information.

Summary

Sally Roth covers not only nectar, water, and other butterfly edibles, but also plants -- host plants, nectar plants, and garden design.

She also offers a look not only into the behavior of hummingbirds and butterflies, but a very useful gallery of the common butterflies and hummingbirds in the United States.

Sprinkled through the pages are gorgeous pictures, useful sidebars of top 10 plants and tidbits, and instructions for small projects.

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Once a month I like to try to find a few quality products on sale. I search places like Duncraft.com or Wayside Gardens so you won't have to.

This month, it's plants on sale. Two of three attract butterflies, and the lovely columbine attracts hummingbirds.

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Trying solve a problem about gardening on a porch, patio, deck, balcony, or other small outdoor space?

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Safflower (WikiMedia)

Ever wonder what safflower seed is?

Or what kind of wild birds it will attract or discourage from your feeders?

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Want to identify a plant? Find out where it grows? Determine what kind of growing conditions it needs?

This week's roundup may help. I'm covering the top 3 free plant databases.

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Want to know more about a particular plant? Its distribution? What it looks like?

Look it up in this plant database.

HortiPlex is part of the vast, highly active GardenWeb. Entry quality varies and is based on user remarks, photos, and ratings.

Want to know more about a particular plant? Its distribution? What it looks like?

Look it up in this plant database.

Want to know more about a particular plant? Its distribution? What it looks like? Look it up in this plant database.

The USDA plant database tends to be more scientific, with less specific growing information for the home gardener.

It's springtime - what will you do to attract wildlife to your porch, patio, deck, or balcony this year?

If you've got a plan, let me know (see the contact link at the top of the page).

Otherwise, check out the following ideas:

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Because of some upcoming personal life changes, I'm reducing my posting schedule by dropping Thursday's posts. In a few weeks, if necessary, I'll drop Tuesday's posts.

I expect to reinstate the four-posts-a-week schedule sometime this fall.

However, Monday is still reserved for administrative notices like this one, while Tuesday remains the day for reviews, briefs, or series. Friday will still bring my feature articles to light.

As always, please contact me (see the link at the top of the page) if you have any questions.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Andrew Bossi, Creative Commons license

Want to attract a bright, colorful butterfly of impressive size?

Today I'm profiling the tiger swallowtail - a large, colorful butterfly typically with a yellow and gold pattern.

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Here's a few things I didn't know about wildlife:

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Does springtime make you want to attract birds with seed? If so, perhaps it's time to stock up.

The following birdseed products come in bulk with free shipping, saving you money - and giving you higher quality birdseed.

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Even if you try to attract hummingbirds with feeders or plants, you may not see any hummingbirds (or only a few vagrants) for several reasons.

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Want to try plants that are new and beautiful, yet still attract wildlife?

New plant cultivars appear on the scene all the time. However, these varieties from the National Garden Bureau are especially stunning.

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Are birds crashing into your windows? And injuring themselves?

Collisions can be prevented.

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This week's link roundup topic is the dragonfly. Hope you enjoy these links!

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You don't necessarily need a large pond to attract dragonflies. "I've got friends whose 'pond' is a wooden half barrel," says Biggs, "and fork-tailed damselflies still come and breed in it. One of my grad students reared damselflies in plastic wading pools." Whatever the size, place your pond where it will be protected from wind and will get midday sun.

If you want dragonflies gallivanting through your garden, get rid of any electric bug zappers, which kill dragonflies as easily as flies and mosquitoes. Over time, the dragonflies will do a great job of keeping the insect population in check without any help. After all, more than 90 percent of their diet consists of people-pestering mosquitoes!

Building your own dragonfly water garden can be easy and fun. A dragonfly watergarden can be any size from as small as a backyard garden with a barrel for the pond to as large as a 20 foot diameter pond in the middle of the Big Apple.

Dragonflies and damselflies are a lot more likely to partake of nuisance bugs like mosquitoes and gnats, making them welcome visitors on summer afternoons. They are, in turn, preyed upon by swallows, kingbirds, redwing blackbirds, small hawks, spiders and mantids.

And what is not to admire about a dragonfly? They are the most accomplished of flying insects. Separate control of the muscles in each of their four wings, which also have a strong network of veins to support the transparent membranes, make them nimble acrobats.

Wondering how to get started with container gardening?

The book, McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers, can help.

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McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers