Wild Oats Seeds

sold out Dense clumping grass easy to establish with direct seeding. Rub or push seed into the soil lightly covering it. Seed will sprout within 2-3 weeks. The seeds I offer are fully cleaned and have been removed from the large outside hulls. Wild oats are an easy ornamental grass to grow including light shade. 

Wild oats is probably one of the few bunchgrasses that actually self seeds enough to call it self perpetuating even within a field of other competitive grasses and forbs.  Indian rice and others did not do that at my farm. As much as I love them, I am not going to be burning and herbiciding my way to a fake prairie.  I once threw out a bunch of the wild oat chaff and plants under a walnut planting twenty years ago. Today the place is still occupied by wild oats as the other grasses failed in the shade of the walnuts. It also provides an edible seed for the birds which consume it during the winter. Even the deer and rabbits graze it topping it during the winter. I like this grass and view it like a native form of timothy in that it is a good mix for a pasture. I have seen it in many places and it establishes well despite competition. I have also read the laments of gardeners who view it with disdain as it sets seeds and spreads. To me this is its strength and one reason to grow it. 

Some other types of bunchgrasses are hard to establish. Not wild oats. Just drop the seeds and lightly cover with soil and scuff it in with your shoes. After two years the seed heads form in great abundance which are a nice ornamental appearance to them as well. By the way, the seeds do taste like oats. But the yields are so small it makes you wonder how anyone could grow them as a perennial grain. But it is possible. As I look at the few ounces of seeds that I processed after a monumental pile of  stalks and heads, I realized OK this is not practical. I know it sounds good though---perennial oats. Who would not like an oatmeal plant in their backyard?