Touched by our natural heritage

IMAGINE, for a moment, the enchanting form of a classic hay meadow, where the abstract designs of Nature repeat over and over again in varying degrees of complexity and regularity, in countless expressions of natural wonder. A meadow that sparkles with an ever-changing palette of colours from shimmering golds and emerald greens to pastels of pink, purple and magenta. I have managed, restored, created and studied traditional hay meadows throughout my career, but remain astonished by their endless beauty of colour and form.

Hay meadows are grassland habitats that are left to grow in spring so they can be cut for hay in summer, then grazed by sheep or cattle into the autumn, until the ground becomes too wet. The traditional practice of annual hay cutting and autumn grazing is essential to maintaining a mosaic community of wildflowers, grasses, sedges and rushes, which also includes a couple of species of tiny yet fascinating ferns. The diversity