Don’t you just love traditional meadows. There just aren’t enough of them about any more… it may be a trick of the memory but I do seem to remember there being a lot more around when I was a youngster. I read somewhere that up to ninety-five per cent of ancient meadows have disappeared because of pesticides and changes to farming methods. So I was pleased to hear from the National Trust that they are creating wildflower meadows and will publicise them more throughout the summer. I’ll be giving further details about this in next month’s Countryman and you can also visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk
You don’t have to be a farmer or landowner to create meadows of course, and my picture shows a local churchyard where an area has been set aside for wildflowers which will be cut for hay later in the year.