Insect-friendly perennial bed
About the project
The green area in front of the SUB Göttingen Central Library on the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen campus is a favourite spot for students and staff, who enjoy spending time in the shade of the trees or sitting on the large stone blocks when the weather is nice. However, this lawn is less frequented by insects. It therefore became the focus of the SUB Göttingen's sustainability working group.
In May 2024, this area was ecologically upgraded. A perennial bed now serves as a valuable source of food for wild bees and many other insect species with flowering perennial plants. It is not only a beautiful sight, but also contributes to the preservation of biodiversity.
Over 400 drought-tolerant wild perennials from Central and Southern Europe were planted on an area of around 50 square metres, which were pre-grown and donated to the project by Dr Michael Schwerdtfeger, garden curator at the Alter Botanischen Garten.
The plant and insect list of the insect pasture at NaturaDB provides you with detailed information on the selected perennials and their pollinators.
The Alte Botanische Garten, which is within flying distance of insects from the perennial bed, is a wild bee hotspot in Germany with 140 out of 600 native bee species. Perennials were selected that are particularly insect-friendly. As most of them are ‘climatic perennials’, they do not require additional watering once they have grown, even in extreme summers.
To prevent other weeds from spreading
in the bed, the area was excavated to a depth of 30 cm before planting and filled with seed-free plant substrate. A bed edging prevents the lateral penetration of grass roots. During the planning phase, Jasper David Rasokat, a student, provided valuable advice on the creation, species composition and maintenance of the bed. He had taken part in the ideas competition for Students 2022 with his concept ‘Ecological enhancement on the central campus’ and actively contributed his experience to the realisation.
The SUB Sustainability Working Group (SUB AG NH) initiated and coordinated the project. The Green Office and Facility Management of the University of Göttingen, the Alumni Göttingen e. V., as well as the SUB's House Services and Logistics Department also worked closely together to ensure the successful realisation of the project. Spontaneous helpers provided active support on site with the distribution of the substrate and planting.
The perennial bed project is a further building block in the implementation of the SUB Göttingen's sustainability guidelines and, in addition to its ecological and aesthetic impact, is itself designed to be sustainable. It combines the ideas and expertise of staff and students and pools their direct commitment to sustainability in their own working and study environment. The university facilities and the student body are thus moving closer together, and the Göttinger Saatgut-Bibliothek is also delighted with the seeds from the perennials. It will collect the perennial seeds in the spirit of sustainability and make them available free of charge.
The Sustainability Working Group of the SUB Göttingen
invites interested parties to visit and observe the flowering plants and their flower-visiting insects and to use the perennial bed as inspiration for their own garden or balcony.
In the drawers of the Göttinger Saatgut-Bibliothek you will find free seeds to take home for your garden.