thx much for that info.When i'm down there in a few wks for my pick up, if theirs looks great, for some reason [zone?] i'll consider it, but sounds pretty bad. Our gardens are so jam packed that 'looks weedy' is the defining thing that would keep me from growing a plant. These pea family plants must be pretty easy to hybridize; there are alot of lespedeza cultivars out there. I finally found a tag for one of mine- Pink Fountain. Very late (like maybe Oct) while the un- i.d.'ed one i have has been steady blooming awhile now, in 90% shade too! I hope i can focus enough for a hands- on lesson from the Br Arrow guys in HOW to tell the diff between lespedeza and indigofera foliage.

Put up a bluebird house, just be ever vigilant at controlling the sparrows. Indigo buntings might come to a thistle seed feeder. Here is a link that might be useful: tips for attracting bluebirds

Yes, cheap seed is filled with millet, loved by grackles, House Sparrows, pigeons, etc. You can get rid of many vermin birds and attract Goldfinches by switching to Black Oil sunflower seed (BOSS) and using tube feeders, or feeding the more expensive Nyjer, or thistle seed. Suet feeders will attract woodpeckers and wrens (mine especially love the 99 cent peanutbutter flavored suet packs from WalMart), orange halves will attract orioles, hummeringbird feeders will attract hummingbirds, but to attract Bluebirds you might have to serve live Mealworms. You can buy most feeders and feed inexpensively at a big box store like WalMart, as well as inexpensive backyard bird field guide booklets. Or you can order a more expensive field guide book, like The Sibley Guide to Birds, used, on Amazon.com

i have one old hopper feeder that just had a rail around the bottom. the birds were scattering more stuff than they were eating. so i took the metal lid off an old pasta pot about 12 inches in diameter. drilled holes and bolted it to the bottom of the feeder and it gives me a 4 inch rim around the feeder and the doves and jays and even the smaller birds perch on it to eat. the holes in the base of the hopper i enlarged so that the shelled peanuts and the corn would flow out of the hopper into the lid which is turned upside down making a tray. now i use a mix of seeds and cracked corn and nuts and even the large striped sunflower seeds so there is a variety for different birds