Keep the four seasons - especially winter - in mind when you plant for wildlife. When snowdrifts pile up and the ground is frozen, many creatures count on fruit- and nut-bearing plants for their survival.
Welcome wildlife year-round by observing the following planting guidelines:
Winter: Winter is the toughest season for just about every creature in Canada. Without a reliable food source, birds and other animals may not live to see the spring. The best food plants are ones with fruits that last through the harsh season. Often, the reason why these fruits aren't gobbled up earlier is that they're not very tasty when they first ripen.
Cardinals are among the many birds that enjoy the fruit of highbush cranberry shrubs. Other plants that retain their fruit into winter include crab-apple, staghorn sumac, bittersweet, Russian olive, American mountain-ash, multiflora rose, and common chokecherry.
Yellow birch and paper-birch trees drop tiny seeds on to the snow, which are eaten by flocks of appreciative finches. Several oak species bear acorns, which are important winter food for white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse, and squirrels. American beech, American hazel, beaked hazelnut, black walnut, American chestnut, and butternut also provide nutritious meals for wildlife. You won't see results right away if you plant a nut tree, but you can be sure your good deed will last for years.
As the foliage on most coniferous trees stays year-round, their dense branches provide excellent winter shelter for birds and other animals. Pines, spruces, firs, cedars, junipers, and yews work nicely as winter cover and summer nesting sites, and the buds and needles of many of these conifers, such as spruce, hemlock, and eastern white cedar, provide tasty winter grub for grouse and deer.
Fall: Autumn is a time for wildlife to store up energy to survive one of two things: a long flight south or a long, cold winter. Fruit-bearing shrubs, such as red-osier dogwood, American mountain-ash, red raspberry, common chokecherry, and buffalo-berry provide nourishment for robins, cedar waxwings, purple finches, and chickadees. Several varieties of honeysuckle, winterberry, and grain crops, such as wheat, barley, corn, oats, and soy beans, also help wildlife stock up for winter. Virginia creeper provides both food and cover during fall months, and goldfinches and redpolls go for the tiny seeds of thistles and alders, which ripen in late fall.
Spring and Summer: The warmer months produce a banquet of edibles and a good selection of nesting and hiding spots for wildlife. Vegetation that provides both food and shelter includes American plum, Canada plum, common chokecherry, black raspberry, red raspberry, thimbleberry, Saskatoon-berry, wild black currant, elderberry, sand-cherry, and prickly gooseberry.