Open Land Grasslands

Grasslands are flat or hilly open areas with low-growing plants, berry bushes, and fruit trees. Here the sun reigns supreme, and the soil ushers forth a bounty of vegetation. Tasty herbs, edible plants, and edible flowers intermingle with different varieties of grass. There can be rich biodiversity within a small area of grassland, especially in spring when tender herbs flourish in earnest.

In grasslands, nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor soils harbour completely different sets of edible plants, as well as different levels of diversity—rich soils tend to be dominated by just a few greedy varieties. If you can tell the difference between the two types of soil, you'll have an easier time finding the plants you're looking for.

Nutrient-rich grasslands

In some places, grasslands have been cultivated and intentionally fertilized; in others, they are located close to farms from which fertilizer has leached into surrounding soils. That fertilizer, of course, adds nutrients to the soil, which allows a few hardy plants like stinging nettles, dandelions, red clover, chickweed, and mugwort to explode in dense populations that quickly overwhelm other plants. These soils also host blackberry bushes and horseradish.

Nutrient-poor grasslands

Grasslands that lie on slopes or otherwise hilly or rocky areas generally aren’t cultivated, as they are less accessible by machinery. Their soils therefore contain fewer nutrients. You can identify nutrient-poor grasslands by the presence of many different flowers, herbs, grasses, and small bushes, all growing alongside one another. The vegetation can change within a matter of feet, and varies in both height and density. You'll see many butterflies, insects, and small birds amid the juniper berries, wild thyme, cornflowers, and garden sorrel these grasslands offer.

Lay of the land

Grasslands can be composed of flat stretches or more hilly areas. The soil may be dry and sandy or more moist and dark. See a tree casting a shadow? Is there a stream running across the landscape? These features will alter the varieties and abundances of plants available. On south-facing hills, you will find species that love the heat and sun, while north-facing hills foster growth of plants that thrive in moister, cooler conditions. Look for these microenvironments to determinewhich plants grow where.

Grasslands change a great deal from season to season. In spring, you'll find lots of tender herbs; these varieties simply increase in abundance over the course of the summer, a season which additionally offers edible flowers for the picking. In late summer, many green herbs become too bitter to eat, but a few remain tasty.

Spring

Nutrient-rich grasslands begin offering up tender herbs as early as April. By the end of spring, they will be joined by shepherd's purse and red clover, and in some places garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed. In nutrient-poor grasslands, tender herbs such as garden sorrel, common mallow, and yarrow will thrive, as well as meadowsweet and sand leek if the soil is damp. The first St. George's mushrooms of the season also grow here.

Summer

Nutrient-poor grasslands put forth many edible flowers in summer, including chicory, cornflowers, and meadowsweet. In dry areas, you'll find heather, wild thyme, common mallow, and yellow bedstraw. Nutrient-rich grasslands will contain horseradish, white dead nettles, and sweet cicely, from which you should only pick the freshest shoots.

Late summer, fall, and winter

Most herbs wither and die in fall, but some varieties such as ground ivy and sheep's sorrel are still luscious and tasty. In nutrient-rich grasslands, you'll find blackberry bushes with ripe berries; it is also worth looking for mugwort, which will have really developed in flavor. You can find fruit trees along grassland edges. Over the winter, you can pick juniper berries, chickweed, yarrow, garlic mustard, and hairy bitter cress.