Nice native grasses for wildlife

[boogieman84]

Can anyone recommend some native perrenial grasses that will help wildlife/provide shelter for insects. I have a few areas in my garden that are bare and it looks unsightly, I want it to look full and lush and hence plant the grasses in the gaps. Any recommendations and also any good sites that I can purchase them from

Many thanks

[aeshna5]

There are quite a few cultivars of both Molinia caerulea + Deschampsia caespitosa which are available from various nurseries; both very attractive + will suppply some cover for spiders + various insects.

[Dorts]

If your ground is around ph neutral or above, a good mixture of :
Crested Dogstail - Cynosurus cristatus,
Cocksfoot - Dactylis glomerata.
Sweet Vernal Grass - Anthoxanthum odoratum, a good early species.
Yorkshire Fog - Holcus lanatus.
Wood False Brome - Brachypodium sylvaticum, (copes with shade.)
would offer food and shelter for a wide range of insects.
Dorts.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by boogieman84

Can anyone recommend some native perrenial grasses that will help wildlife/provide shelter for insects. I have a few areas in my garden that are bare and it looks unsightly, I want it to look full and lush and hence plant the grasses in the gaps. Any recommendations and also any good sites that I can purchase them from. Many thanks

Dort's and Aeshna's suggestions are good, but I'm concerned about how you intend to manage these grasses. To be of optimal use they need to be uncut from April to September to provide food for larval butterflies, and located not to far from a hedge or shrubbery which would provide undisturbed over wintering. The grass species which are attractive to invertebrates are not necessarily the most 'classically' attractive garden plants so you will need to factor this into your plans if 'unsightly' is an issue.

Though personally I think that there are lots of options for great looking gardens through using native plants, it does require taking a different perspective from the average sense of what a 'tidy garden' should look like. It is worth thinking about this because it can be very dissappointing to invest money and effort and not be happy with the result.

Grasses are best grown from seed - the following all provide a selection:

Wildflowers, Wild Grasses and Mixtures | Emorsgate Seeds ? (01553) 829 028

Wildflowers - Naturescape Native British Wild Flowers, Seeds, Plants and Advice with mail-order and online ordering

Seeds Wildflower Seed

CM

[Dorts]

As CM has said, some of the suggested list of species may not look 'neat & tidy' especially if left un-cut, but will offer far more than one or two 'tidy' plants.
A larger area may attract some grasshoppers, crickets etc.
The bolder you are, the better the results are likely to be.
Dorts.

[Red Robin]

^^^^
Interesting what folks are saying about 'unsightly'/'untidy'. I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I only strim my grass areas about twice a year and let it rot where it falls. The result is authentically rustic and all sorts of plants grow and mini-beasts roam in abundance such as Speckled Bush Crickets, grasshoppers, ant hills, etc, all in turn providing food for various birds. Then there's an occasional visit by a Sparrowhawk preying on the birds. He recently ripped out the jugulars of a couple of nesting Wood Pigeon chicks recently.

A log pile also helps. And a wildlife (no fish) pond .

I don't have a clue what's 'native'. If it grows of its own accord in my garden, it's native as far as I'm concerned.

[Dorts]

I think the word 'untidy' has been used because it is the opposite of what we expect in a garden. The environment in which these grasses are to be used, a garden, is an area where plants are normally cultivated, tended, generally kept neat and tidy and free of weeds.
To allow a mixture of native plants to grow in a natural way may not be what some would want in their garden, because the result may look 'untidy'.
I think that's why the word was used, but I agree; 'each to his own'.
Dorts.

[Red Robin]

I'm glad that we can all agree that it's each to their own - It would be dull if we all liked the same.

Personally, I particularly dislike the highly manicured garden or rather the typical though somewhat stereotyped attitude of the owner who thinks they are in competition with their neighbours and that Nature is untidy. I prefer a balance such that the human can happily co-exist with a garden's wildlife and consequently learn from and enjoy it. Over tidy gardens can be very sterile.

This is part of my back garden:

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Red Robin

Interesting what folks are saying about 'unsightly'/'untidy'. I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I only strim my grass areas about twice a year and let it rot where it falls. The result is authentically rustic and all sorts of plants grow and mini-beasts roam in abundance such as Speckled Bush Crickets, grasshoppers, ant hills, etc, all in turn providing food for various birds. Then there's an occasional visit by a Sparrowhawk preying on the birds.

I think it is important to recognise gardens as functional spaces, and while some of us will be in a position to maximise the wildlife value of a garden, most gardens have to fulfil multiple uses for a number of users - particularly so in small urban gardens. I wouldn't say that tidyness was inimical to wildlife value and in a multiple function garden good garden hygene is important to minimising pests and diseases. This is an important consideration where good neighbour relations are to be maintained.

As to an 'authentically rustic garden', - that would be a well maintained strictly rowed vegetable garden, where any pest was dealt with by application of the most toxic substance available, some tightly pruned roses and hedging and maybe a border of flowering perenniels. The wild cottage garden was a rarity and its untlimate conception more a product of Jekyll and Lutyens' style suburbanism than of rural origin.

The best most of us can achieve in our gardens is an optimisation of wildlife value, based around meeting all the demands of the various human users and working within the local environmental conditions. For some that may mean no more than a lawn for the kids to play on and a buddleia stuck in a corner to provide some late summer nectar from butterflies.

CM

[Red Robin]

Originally Posted by Cotham Marble

As to an 'authentically rustic garden', - that would be a well maintained strictly rowed vegetable garden, where any pest was dealt with by application of the most toxic substance available, some tightly pruned roses and hedging and maybe a border of flowering perenniels. The wild cottage garden was a rarity and its untlimate conception more a product of Jekyll and Lutyens' style suburbanism than of rural origin.

The best most of us can achieve in our gardens is an optimisation of wildlife value, based around meeting all the demands of the various human users and working within the local environmental conditions. For some that may mean no more than a lawn for the kids to play on and a buddleia stuck in a corner to provide some late summer nectar from butterflies.

CM

....Your definition of 'authentically rustic' is entirely different from mine, but I don't doubt that your definition is technically and historically correct and mine incorrect.

I'm after the same as you inasmuch that I aim (and clearly succeed) in the optimisation of wildlife but, as I said before, in a convenient balance with my own way of life. We simply each do our own little bit. I don't care too much about what historically happened in quaint olde English gardens - It's interesting but academic. I live in the present, not the past.

We need to accept that death is an important part of life and evolution and that life in the wild can be cruel.