Here are some thoughts based on my own reading and research this past year in preparing to re-landscape my yards with trees and shrubs. The Homeowner's Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook, written by a northern New Englander, Penelope O'Sullivan, has almost 200 pages of plant profiles and pictures. Her observations/recommendations are heavily tilted towards what does or doesn't work well in her own area (NH, I think). The first half of the book, on landscape design, purchasing, care related to trees and shrubs is really accessible and first rate. Well illustrated. I would buy this book in a heartbeat, if only it were Midwest rather than upper New England centered! Michael Dirr's reference books, often available in public libraries, provide excellent plant profiles for all types of woody plants (esp. trees, shrubs). Handy to have if you're interested in learning about specific trees and shrubs (but expensive, so borrowing is a good option). I haven't downloaded it yet, but Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants has been released for iPhone/iPad; the promo blurb says "Dirr's Tree and Shrub Finder covers 1670 species and 7800 cultivars, with 7600 high-quality plant images." Its database can be searched by 72 criteria, inc. hardiness zone, which would allow you to tailor it to your area. Customer reviews suggest it works best on the iPhone.$14.95. Have you looked to see what online (and/or print) resources are available from NE state extension services and major area arboretums? As I live in Iowa I frequently turn to area databases from a couple of regional arboretums--the Morton Arboretum in Chicago and the Missouri Botanical Gardens in Chicago--for information, then extrapolate from there. The Morton offers about a dozen specifc guides on trees and shrubs--topics like "small ornamental trees," "crabapples," "viburnums," "decid. shrubs" and "trees" by height ranges--that can be easily printed out. Each about 4-5 pages, with lists of recommended plants, inc. hardiness zone. Might work for you as they give strongest emphasis to the Upper Midwest. Go to http://www.mortonarb.org/tree-plant-advice.html and use the "Selection Guide" pulldown menu in the upper left. Perhaps the Arnold or others in NE offer similar online guides? In states with large land grant universities, state-run Extension services (associated with agriculture, horticulture programs) offer lots of free or low-cost, usually state-specific books, pamphlets, and/or online help. Not sure if N.E. states have anything comparable. This winter I stumbled across a free 128-page report from Cornell focusing on "recommended urban trees for USDA plant hardiness Zone 6 and colder" (think: trees able to withstand Upstate NY conditions). While intended for urban planners selecting trees for street and park areas, it has dozens of one-page profiles on trees known for their hardiness and ease of transplanting. Surprisingly, many of the trees are ornamentals like crabapples, tree lilacs, hawthorns, etc. Includes info on ease of planting and soil moisture I haven't found elsewhere. Only takes a click to download the entire thing as a pdf. Available at: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/uhi/outreach/recurbtree/ Have fun!

There are many, many people who love to watch butterflies as they flit through the air slowly and gracefully. If you never have, you certainly should! Butterflies provide beauty in an often ugly world. They give us insight into the world of nature and how wonderful and complex it is. But the butterfly is much more than that. Butterflies are some of the most beautiful and interesting creatures on Earth. A butterfly garden is an easy way to see more butterflies and to help them, since many natural butterfly habitats have been lost to human activities like building homes, roads and farms. It is easy to increase the number and variety of butterflies in your yard. Creating a butterfly garden should start with some serious research to learn which kinds of butterflies are native to your area. You can learn that from this book âÂÂAttract Butterflies To Your GardenâÂÂ. Here are some points you should focus: A. Make a list of all of the different kinds of butterflies you would like to attract, and then learn which flowers and plants they both feed on and lay eggs on. B. Plant the âÂÂButterfly Host Plantsâ to lay their eggs on. C. You can add some butterfly garden accessories like a Butterfly House, which has slots the ideal size for keeping birds out while giving butterflies protection from the wind and weather, and are beautiful garden decorations. You could offer an additional nectar source close by to supplement your flowers. D. Once you have designed and started your butterfly garden, you can be proud that you have made a habitat for butterflies in your own yard, which helps with the conservation of the many species of quickly disappearing butterflies today. You will certainly want to place your favorite outdoor furniture near so that you can enjoy all of your visitors day after day. Here is a link that might be useful: Attract Butterflies To Your Garden

Hi, Wanna Run! Congratulations on your iPhone. It was something I didn't know I wanted, either, until I got mine. Now I can't bear the thought of not having one! My land lines were constantly out of service, and they would send out repairmen over and over, only to have them go down in two weeks. I had a basic cell phone, too. Finally, I got mad and decided I was going to cancel the land lines and go get a GOOD cell phone, and that would just be IT. I already had AT&T cell phone service, so I stopped by their kiosk at the mall...and fell in LUUUUV. I adore all the ringtones you can download, and I've learned how to make my own from snippets of favorite CD's. My default ringtone is the opening music from the HBO series, True Blood. ("Bad Things," by Jace Everett...it's so cool.) I found tutorials on how to make my own and spent a whole afternoon getting different ones to personalize for certain callers. I don't have nearly as many apps as Kate, though I do have a lot of the ones she mentioned. Since I'm back on Weight Watchers, I couldn't do without iWatcher. I also found the best birding field guide, EVER. (iBird South) It cost me $10 and was worth every penny. It not only has tons of info on each species, range maps, line drawings AND photos, but it plays their bird calls, too. It's so cool to always have my bird ID info with me when I'm out anywhere. That is the only app I paid more than $.99 for, I think. I don't do many games, but I do like Card Shark. (Everyone needs a game of solitaire for killing time now and then.) I also have a little game called Ant Hill. When I'm really mad at the fire ants in the yard, I come in, pull that up and spend fifteen minutes or so dropping land mines on them, just to hear 'em squeal. Unlike Kate, I don't care for audio books, but I do read all the time, so I got Classics, which she mentioned. (I'm finally reading Call Of The Wild, which I somehow missed in school). I read regular books at home, but in the waiting room or in line, I pull that up and read another chapter or two in it. And there are several others in there I plan to read, as well. I have another book one called Stanza, and I can download books from from several different bookstores into that, at a price. You pay for the books, of course, but not as much as a "real" book. I haven't used it yet, but I plan to. I found a free wildflower ID book called iPlant. It's not REAL comprehensive, but it was free, and I HAVE used it a few times with success. I like Nightstand, which is a great travel clock with several options, and free. I like Just Light, which is a terrific little flashlight. There is an app called iStat which lets you free up memory when things start to slow down a bit. It shows a pie chart of how much free memory you have available and with one click it dumps stuff (from a cache file, probably) and improves performance. It's free, too. I have a good dictionary and iWiki, Showtimes for local movie times, completely with synopsis of the film and reviews, and a real favorite, iTranslate. In that one, you can pick your From language and your To language, type in a phrase and it translates it for you. There are 42 languages to choose from. (If you want to call someone a jerk in Swahili, it's there!) We are AAA members, and I found a Discounts program that does a bunch of stuff, including tracking where you are and telling you what hotels, etc, in that area offer AAA discounts. But it also has a one touch button to call for your AAA roadside assistance, and because of the GPS feature, it can send a tow truck, etc, straight to you, from the nearest garage. Cool!! I love changing my wallpaper daily, and have an app that has hundreds of scenic photos to choose from, plus I use my own photos, as well. The camera is actually pretty darn good, too. It's a feature I just love, because I don't have to remember to take my regular camera along with me. There is a Voice Memo app that I didn't download, but that wasn't on the phone when I got it, so I'm guessing they have upgraded to include it, and it was installed automatically the last time I synched the phone. You can leave messages for yourself there, and it's a lot faster than typing on the tiny keyboard. Oh, yeah...synching...they did NOT explain that to me when I got it, and it was a couple of days before I found out you need to do that regularly. And that's how you add everything. They never even told me I NEEDED to have iTunes installed on my computer to make everything work properly. But I blundered my way along until I figured it all out. There is an app called Wallpaper Maker that lets you add text to your phone's wallpaper. You can put a contact number on there if you want, in case you lose it, and someone HONEST actually finds it. I'm nervous about doing that, but it is fun to add captions to family photos, etc, and use those as wallpapers. I made one with my dogs and a saying under them. Have2Eat is a restaurant finder that will give you a list of restaurants in your area, with info on them, wherever you happen to be. And I forgot, the Showtimes movie finder does that, too. So if you are out of town and want to go to a movie, it will tell you what's playing THERE. Another useful one is WhitePages. It's a phone directory, and saves you the charge of calling 411 for a number. Plus, it gives you a location map of the business or person you are searching for. This device is so amazing, I can't believe it. It's an entire computer in your pocket. I hope you love yours as much as I love mine. Nicki's says I'm obnoxious about it! Hahaha. So I downloaded a ringtone that has a girl with a really obnoxious voice saying, "Look, Everybody. I have an iPhone...and someone is CALLING me on it!" Hahaha. I set it to say that when SHE calls me! Have fun! Hugs, Marcia

WOW! I thought I was very sparse on apps, but compared to y’all I’m a clutterbug. I have 2 weather apps, one shows the weather in multiple places, one has a radar map. For travel, I have 4 airlines, one hotel, one cruise line, Trip Advisor, Expedia, Rick Steves Audio Europe, Google Translate, and mobile passport. I have a night light app and a white noise fan app. Also Google Maps and Waze. Uber. Amtrak which I need to offload. I also have 2 apps for ordering groceries, one for each grocery in my town. Passport - for paying parking meters when I go downtown Pandora Cell Protect/Mobile Security which blocks most robo calls and telemarketers. I think one is the newer version of the other. I need to figure that out and delete the unnecessary one. Twitter, iMessage, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest Overdrive and Kindle. I haven’t downloaded Libby yet because I have the library bookmarked in Safari Anova to control my sous vide circulator a bank app for mobile deposits Google Docs a spreadsheet a word processing app Red Cross First Aid, mainly to remember how to do CPR on the twins when they were infants Pepperplate, recipe app bpath, you do not need to delete your YB Races app. You can offload it until you need it again. Offloading maintains the data so that you can reload the app later and the data will still be there. On an iPhone, go to Settings>General>iPhone Storage. Scroll down to the particular app you wish to offload. Tap on the name of the app, on the next page, tap on Offload App.