Wildflower meadows

Monday 14th June 2021

Today we spent the morning with the Glorious Cotswolds Grasslands team .Glorious Cotswold Grasslands - Cotswolds National Landscape (cotswoldsaonb.org.uk) This is a three year project ( now in its second year) which is set up to restore over 100 hectares of limestone grasslands. It works by having donor landowners who allow the seeds on their land to be harvested and recipients landowners who then plant those seeds. Sounds easy but actually they need to be matched up to ensure they have the same sort of soil and conditions to make sure the seeds have a good chance of success. At the beginning of July we will start harvesting - hard work and long days I am told!

We also spent an hour walking around the meadow at Dyrham Park. It has been kept as a wildflower meadow for 20 years and is beautiful - I can highly recommend taking a walk around at this time of year. Lots of interesting plants - including the bee orchid pictured - quite rare apparently!