Five meadows: The sweet scent of hay

28 July 2012

The sweet scent of hay

One of the highlights of hay-making season is the sweet scent of newly mown grass and well-made hay. It is hard to convey the scent on a blog, but perhaps the pictures of my dog Ellie go some way to demonstrate just how good it is!

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My work for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust began shortly after I finished school when I volunteered to undertake a flora survey of my local patch, Felixstowe Ferry. I was then fortunate enough to gain paid work with SWT, working on the county-wide habitat survey and ancient woodland project.

When these projects came to an end I went off to study and
work in horticulture. I was privileged to help restore and work in some really fabulous Suffolk gardens. There are many strong links between conservation and horticulture including gaining an understanding of how land and plants work and what happens when you add people in to the mix!

I returned to work for Suffolk Wildlife Trust in 1999 and part of my current work is looking after several of SWT’s meadow reserves.

All the meadows are very different, each with a unique
character and sense of place. I could certainly not choose between them or have a favourite, except perhaps to say that I like the one most where there is no signal for my mobile phone!

The number of times I visit each meadow varies with the
season and management. If I’m checking sheep I will visit nearly every day, whilst at other times of year I may not see the meadow for several weeks. Ironically, because my visits are often site management related e.g. checking fencing, drawing up hay cutting contracts etc. I often miss visiting the meadows when they are at their peak.

I hope the blog will give an insight into character of the meadows and the work entailed in looking after them.