Richard Nunnally’s gardening column

Q:We're tired of maintaining our lawn and would really like to landscape our yard to make it easier to maintain and more attractive to wildlife. We'd particularly like to attract birds and butterflies. Can you suggest where to find information on making this transition?

Answer: There are several places to get suggestions for attracting butterflies. Maymont and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden are featuring butterfly exhibits this summer. A visit to both would let you see plants that naturally attract butterflies. We'll be featuring Maymont's new Butterfly Garden on our June 30 edition of Virginia Home Grown, on WCVE-TV.

Also, I just previewed a DVD by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries called "Habitat at Home." This 40-minute program contains four segments that showcase different habitat gardens, with tips for improving wildlife habitats around homes. It features a butterfly garden in Virginia Beach, a shrub and woodland garden in Shenandoah County, a water garden in Rappahannock County and a native plant garden in Arlington County.

The DVD sells for $12 and comes with an informational brochure and a plant list. You can order it online at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov or by calling (804) 367-2569.

Q:About four years ago, I planted a 10-foot weeping willow in an area of my yard that almost always stays wet. The tree did well the first summer, but the second summer, which was fairly dry, some branches at the top died. Last summer, after coming back from an extended vacation, we noticed that most of the leaves had turned yellow and had fallen off, with more top branches dying. This spring, only about two or three branches at the bottom of the tree sprouted leaves. Everything above that was just sticks with no leaves. I understand that trees die from the top down. Can this tree be salvaged?

Answer: I'm afraid it sounds like this one is beyond saving. Weeping willows do need lots of water, and two severe droughts in a row may have been too hard on it. Those leaves on the lower limbs are an indication that the root system isn't strong enough to send nutrients any higher up the trunk.

If you have to replace it, you might consider a river birch. They have an interesting trunk in the winter and also use a lot of water. They are a little more tolerant of dry conditions. Another option would be bald cypress. Though we often think of them as growing only in standing water, they actually grow well in regular soil.

Q:I've started composting this year, but sometimes my kitchen-scraps bucket does not get to the compost pile while the scraps are fresh. If they have begun to rot, in the bucket, is it still OK to put them in the compost pile? I realize they will decompose in the compost but don't know if there is a point at which they are too ripe to include in the compost bin.

Answer: Congratulations for starting to compost. Not only will you be recycling a valuable organic material, but you'll soon be producing a wonderful soil amendment for your plants. As for your vegetable scraps, they can still go into the pile, even if they have been indoors a little too long. The more they decompose indoors, the faster they will finish up outdoors.

Richard Nunnally is a freelance writer and host of WCVE's monthly gardening show, "Virginia Home Grown." He can be contacted at .