Most conscientious conservationists know one of the best ways to attract and hold more and healthier wildlife on your land, including deer, turkeys and a host of other species is by providing the proper amount and type of natural food to meet their year-round nutritional needs. What many don't realize is that late summer can be a period of high nutritional stress, especially for deer.

One of the best ways to widen the window of attractiveness, while filling nutritional gaps is planting perennial summer fruit plots with a variety of soft mast species from Chestnut Hill Outdoors. They'll provide a much needed boost when the nutritional value of maturing forbs and grasses is dwindling and hard mast has yet to ripen and fall.

Part of your plan should include plums. Among the earliest trees to fruit, they provide ripe soft mast as early as May and June in the deep south and early July further north. You can follow that up with pears, which will be next to ripen from July-August, depending on variety and location. Then bridge the gap before hard mast drops with apples. Last, but by no means least, come persimmons. Sometimes referred to as "Deer Candy," they typically ripen after the first frost, and the sound of falling persimmons is an irresistible dinner bell to deer and other wildlife species.

Supplementing your soft mast trees with orchards or groves of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and grapes serves several purposes. It will fill the gap of wildlife nutrition even further, while also providing preferred food for a greater variety of wildlife, including turkeys, grouse, rabbits and many other game and non-game species. By selecting the right variety of each, you can have highly nutritious soft mast available from mid-summer right into fall. The plantings also make great nesting, brood-rearing and bedding cover and shelter.

Don't worry about selecting the right varieties. The folks at Chestnut Hill Outdoors will help you pick trees and shrubs that are best suited to your plant hardiness zone, regional climate and soil conditions.

Soft mast bearing trees and shrubs are available from Chestnut Hill Outdoors in a range of size containers depending on species and variety. Most will bear fruit in their second or third year and eventually be tremendous producers of soft mast when other food is lacking in nutrition or supply.

Chestnut Hill Outdoors is more than just a nursery. In order to ensure you receive the maximum benefit from their products, they also provide sound advice and instruction on proper planting and care. They ensure the plants you receive are suited to your regional climate. For more on Chestnut Hill Outdoors products and how to care for them, visit ChestnutHillOutdoors.com, or call (855) 386-7826.