Masterful Gardening: Provide winter wildlife necessities in the landscape

Temperatures are falling. This means cleanup chores and other winter preparations to your home and garden abound. Birds, small animals and insects also prepare for the cold months, and addressing their winter needs can mutually benefit them, your landscape and your fall task list.

Food, water and shelter are the necessities for sustaining life. Home gardeners interested in attracting wildlife often place a high emphasis on providing food during winter. Feeders, as long as they remain consistently stocked, help sustain outdoor critters when food is scarce, and add viewing interest. It’s a good idea to offer variety at your feeders in order to address the needs of multiple species. Thistle seed, suet, corn, sunflower seeds and acorns are good choices to provide widespread appeal.

Feeders are wonderful, but a smart way for gardeners to provide food for wildlife is to grow it! Coneflower varieties, sedums, Joe-Pye Weed, sunflower varieties, corn, nut and fruit bearing trees, white pine and winter fruit-bearing shrubs all provide sustenance without a feeder. These plants then add blooms, beauty, and interest to your yard throughout the year. Note that leaving flower heads, seed stalks, fruits and nuts unmolested until springtime cuts down on your fall workload and keeps these items available to wildlife.

Perhaps more important to wildlife survival during a harsh winter is a source of water. When snow and ice cover natural sources, clean thawed water can be the difference between life and death for animals that remain active on the coldest days. Not just for hydration, water is essential for keeping fur and feathers clean so it can insulate from the cold. A heater or pump left running in a pond feature is an option, or simply empty and refill your birdbath with warm water when temperatures are below freezing so animals have at least a short time for access.

Once fed and watered, the only necessity left is shelter. A constant symbol of winter, evergreen trees and shrubs are a great shelter, and ensure there is something green year-round for visual appeal. Stands of conifers act as windbreaks, and pine nuts are food for birds and small mammals. In the harshest winters, deer and other animals will also eat the greenery if there are no other options. As the holidays approach and shopping days count down, consider buying a live Christmas tree and adding it to your grove each spring.

Those with sore backs from raking and bagging leaves and cleaning up branches will be happy to know a pile of branches and leaves is the perfect overwintering place for birds, small mammals, and dormant reptiles, amphibians and beneficial insects. Dedicating a far corner of your yard to a woodpile, a stack of branches, and a few piles of leaves will go a long way toward keeping critters warm and alive through the winter – and hopefully far enough away from your home that they won’t be tempted to come in. It also gives you an easy dumping spot for garden cleanup. Similarly, maintaining a compost pile year round provides some of the same wildlife benefits, with the end result being better soil.

While lawn can be damaged by leaf litter, your flower beds can benefit by simply allowing leaves and dead stalks to accumulate until spring. This insulates and protects tender roots and bulbs, and composts in place to enrich the soil. Rigorous cleanup activities are best left until spring. Procrastinators, unite! By coupling your landscape plans with the needs of wildlife, you can find wonderful efficiencies and mutual benefit while sustaining wildlife in your yard.