One of our latest projects is looking at floral diversity at the meadows. Historically, the site would have been abundant with wildflower and rich colours but over time vigorous grasses have dominated and reduced the number of species that are able to thrive. In the spring months the fields are a sea of yellow with buttercups which is beautiful but gradually we hope to introduce many other wildflower species which will naturally increase overall biodiversity at the meadows. It’s going to be a long journey but we are looking at ways we can restore the meadows to their former glory. 

To do this we realised that we needed to manage the meadows rather than simply letting them grow wild, so along with conservation grazing, we needed to include a hay cut. Thankfully, our grazier was more than happy to help us out with this, so in July he arranged for the two southern fields to be cut and bailed. A hay cut is generally carried out after flowers have set seed giving them an opportunity to spread before the cut is taken away. A combination of conservation grazing and hay cutting not only reduces the tall dominant grass allowing more sunlight to get to slower growing plants, but it removes nutrients from the soil when the hay is taken away. At first I thought this idea was crazy, why would you want to reduce the nutrients in the soil?! But as the Trust explained to me - grass love nutrients and wildflower really don’t so it all became clear - every day is a school day!