The Meadow Makers' Network Forum

During Covid Moor Meadows have managed to run three socially-distanced scything workshops. Unable to run our plant ID workshops this year, we have produced two Grasses ID for beginners videos with botanist Hannah Gibbons.

Learn to identify common meadow grasses (27 mins)
Grasses ID may seem challenging but watch this video and you’ll soon learn the key indicator species you are likely to find in a species-rich dry meadow.
Grasses will tell you a lot about the land in terms of its management and conservation value so being able to identify key species is really valuable.

A close look at grass structure (10 mins)
How to easily identify the differences between your meadow grasses.
For most of us grass is grass but when you look closely there are lots of different species and although they can be hard to tell apart, this short video will help you identify them. Know your spikelet from your ligule!

Watch them on the link below. Subscribe to our youtube channel (it’s free) and you’ll receive notification of new videos once they’re added
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjHa28 ... -gw/videos

If you find them valuable, please consider a small donation to Moor Meadows so we can bring you more informative training videos!
https://moormeadows.org.uk/donate/

Hannah Gibbons is an ecologist and has been working in the conservation sector for 16 years and for the majority of that time has been working for charities (such as DWT and RSPB) carrying out botanical and habitat surveys. Since 2011 she has been running training courses on plant identification and has run several workshops for Moor Meadows.

For anyone wanting to try to learn more, the Offwell Woodland and Wildlife Trust http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/ near Honiton has a great introductory guide and top ten tips for identifying grasses on its website http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/grass_id/index.htm (as well as lots of other Devon-centric wildlife info)


In addition, there are several videos on Buckfastleigh’s Be Wild youtube channel that may be of interest, in addition to Barney’s very informative grasses ID for beginners which can be found here

The idea to make a series of short wildlife films, all filmed in Buckfastleigh parish by local conservationists, came about at the start of Lock Down. There are now several up there from John Walters, including how to help wild bees in your garden, how to make a bee brick, The secret life of moths and just added, The Dawn Chorus. There’s one on how to create a meadow in your garden, in support of Plantlife’s Every Flower Counts (No Mow May).

Subscribe to the youtube channel (it’s free) if you’d like to receive notification when a new video is added.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCABcw3 ... 8jyl-fuagQ

Great videos, and I strongly encourage everyone to get to know the grasses in their meadow - they can tell you so much about the ecology of your meadow.

A request about videos - YouTube auto-generates subtitles, but these inevitably have some errors - whoever posts the video can go in to edit or correct these (eg. Latin names are always a challenge, and it's easier to read if the umms and errs are edtited out). This would be great to make the videos more accessible for those of us who find written language easier than spoken.