Thank-you all for your replies! Dandy, I spent half of last yr "winter sowing"! I cut up milk bottles, decanted soil, etc etc. I grew Asclepias sp, columbine, button bushes, spicebushes, magnolias, Monarda sp. etc etc problem is I lost most of the seedlings to drought, strong, fast growing weeds and grass and slugs! I cannot bring myself to use more chemicals. I used some on the bittersweet vines and I feel bad about that. I know that in my case, chemicals are not going to work. I really haven't got the equipment or time to battle the meadow/hay/weed grass so I thought I'd identify the strong, maybe slightly invasive natives that will survive! I'd love to have a mix of native Asclepias but if I can get a few A. tuberosa and/or syriaca to take root in different spots I'll be happy! I will of course take the seed route again 'cause I can't afford plants...just wishful thinking. Maybe I'll try some coneflowers and hyssop....how bad are the sunflowers?

All of the site preparation info above is good. Do it. Get rid of everything with Roundup (or any glyphosate herbicide). Then, next fall, in Nov or Dec, after the ground has cooled and nothing will germinate, spread an appropriate mixture of native grasses and forbs ("wildflowers") on the site. Let the winter rains and frosts work these into the ground (unless its sloped). The problem (as IÂve mentioned in several previous posts some time ago) is that "widlflowers" are never, ever found by themselves in nature. In every meadow example there are supporting and weed-suppressing grasses surrounding each forb. The reason your patch looked so bad was because it was a weed haven. If you can, at any time, look down and see bare soil (as you could when the flowers were there), weeds will take over the site. Consequently, youÂve got to plant proper grasses along with the flowers. And you need to plant a lot more grasses than forbs. You have a quarter-acre site, and I strongly recommend the planting of the grass below at a 10-15 lb/acre rate. ThatÂs about 4 lbs. The forbs are secondary and can be planted in ounce-sized quantities. But the key to accomplishing all that you wish is the proper selection, planting, and management of the supporting grasses. And there is really (in my experience  and IÂve done a lot of these professionally) only one grass to consider, little bluestem. It will provide all that you want: support for forbs, no requirement for water, fertilizers, or sprays, is gorgeous in all seasons (especially fall and winter in a remarkable russet red), and if properly managed, will persist until the next glacier gets here. The variety of little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) to use is ÂBlaze. A number of Midwest native grass suppliers have it. I recommend Ohio Prairie Nursery (http://www.ohioprairienursery.com/). They can supply this variety. Spread the seed, mixed with sand, over a light snow in Nov or Dec. By this, you can see where this fluffy seed lands. In spring and summer, simply mow the entire area at 3-4 inches. The little bluestem grows downward the first year or two, and is hardly visible (except to an experienced expert). This first-year mowing keeps any weeds from getting the upper hand. In the second year, mow again in May and June, but then back off and let the little prairie grasses begin to shoot up. You will see very little and believe that youÂve wasted your time and money. But after Oct frosts you will see a scattering of reddish small clumps. In the third year, these will become nice clumps of grass of wonderfully thin leaves that toss nicely in the wind. The forbs will be growing between these little bluestem clumps. In the fourth year you will have what you envisioned, a "wildflower" meadow (not a garden  gardens require constant weeding, watering, and other continual messing -with) If you think you are planting a Midwestern prairie in New England, you are correct. But as it happens, most of the uplands surrounding what later became Boston was a little bluestem prairie meadow landscape in the early 1600s at the time of settlement. New Englanders erroniously believe that all of the region was ancestrally all in dense forest. Not so. Many large areas, especially near the Coast, were little bluestem prairies created by annual Native American landscape fires. The heath hen, a bird which became extinct on MarthaÂs Vineyard in the 1930s, was actually a New England version (same species, different subspecies) of the Midwestern prairie chicken. Unless you plant some native prairie grasses, you will not be able to accomplish all that you envision. The finest thing would be to attempt to restore this rare 16th century habitat.

Oh when it rains it pours! After having a good hot day and only a 30% chance of rain forecasted, I though we would get a dry day under our belt. No such luck. This evening we got another storm, putting down another 8/10 tenths of rain. Dave, your advice is spot on, but when it rains this much and just about every single day, I canÂt even do what you suggest. I can do what Anney suggested. I have lots of 5 quart ice cream pails that I can cut the bottom out of and fill with planting mix. At this time it seems that may be my only viable option. Do you guys think I should forego putting my black plastic down? The positive thing about not putting the plastic down is; less walking around in the garden, therefore less compaction. The negatives are; soil not as warm, having to deal with weeds and isnÂt this next one ironic. Having the plastic down would keep the soil moist should the summer turn to be very dry. I guess after typing this out it seems that it would be best to put the black plastic down. I am including a picture of one of the ice cream buckets with the bottom cut out, to get some thoughts as to whether or not if they would do the job. Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it. David

FWIW, I've been taking a lot of flower pictures with a Canon Digital Rebel and Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX macro lens. I usually don't use a tripod, though that depends on lighting and personal preference. Most of my SW plant pictures at www.polyploid.net were taken with the Digital Rebel and Sigma 105mm. For greater magnifications I sometimes use extension tubes, which are hollow tubes mounted between the lens and the camera body that decrease the minimum focus distance of the lens, apart from that the only thing I use often on plant pictures is a flash on a hotshoe cord. Close-up filters are lenses that screw onto the end of another lens, basically just a magnifying glass that screws on. They will give you greater magnification, but usually with poor image quality. I don't take pictures of birds, so can't help on that one. What I do know is that any lens longer than 300mm is going to be either very expensive, or give crappy pictures. Patrick Alexander