This site features writing and artwork inspired by research into the sustainable management of floodplain meadows for nature friendly farming.
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Hung, Drawn and Quartered: a meadow season
Here endeth the second field season of my PhD, researching some fabulous floodplain meadows in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. I was fortunate to be able to complete a full field season this year after being curtailed by lockdowns in 2020. This year my research has been hung, drawn and quartered, which wasn’t nearly as painful asContinue reading “Hung, Drawn and Quartered: a meadow season”
Burnet and Blue
Burnet: A most precious herb, the continual use of it preserves the body in health and the spirit in vigour. Culpeper Great burnet (Sanguisorba officianalis) is a stately denizen of our floodplain meadows – a larger cousin to the more diminutive salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) that you might find in upland calcareous grasslands or asContinue reading “Burnet and Blue”
Forever Meadow: a Poem
It’s National Meadows Day and this poem celebrates the wonder of traditional floodplain hay meadows. These threatened habitats can boast 40 plant species per square metre, which in turn support a vast diversity of animal life. To maintain this important pool of biodiversity these meadows depend on the annual cycle of hay cutting and aftermathContinue reading “Forever Meadow: a Poem”
