On Wednesday 12th June landowners, meadow makers and volunteers attended a training day with Herefordshire Meadows, to learn how to identify key meadow plants and carry out a grassland survey. Training took place on the fantastic Meadows at Hurstans, Soller’s Hope – where owner Fiona Fyshe manages species-rich grassland that was enhanced with seed from Joan’s Hill Farm, as part… Read more →
Tag Archive for plant id
2024 Plant ID Training Day at Croft Castle
On Monday 10th June meadow owners from across Herefordshire attended a Plant Identification training day at Croft Castle. The day was led by Vice County Botanical Recorder and Herefordshire Meadows Trustee Stuart Hedley, who introduced the group to the Rapid Plant Monitoring Method, a simple technique for monitoring changes in grassland over time. The session was aimed at equipping meadow… Read more →
Updated Meadow Monitoring survey sheets for 2024!
For 2024 we have introduced a slightly amended Rapid Monitoring recording sheet which we hope will assist the new tranche of meadow makers coming in under the Kingspan and other projects, as well as helping previous restoration site owners carrying out their annual monitoring surveys. Download the pdf survey sheet HERE or the Excel file HERE and visit our Survey… Read more →
July Newsletter
Welcome to our July Newsletter. After record-breaking temperatures this June, we have ended the month with some much-needed rain. With the meadows fast setting seed we are looking forward to a month of seed harvesting this July, with 8 donor sites due to be visited and over 60ha of receptor sites being prepped for restoration this year. Herefordshire Meadows have… Read more →
Seedling Safari and Winter Management practices for recently restored swards
A chance to discuss winter meadow management with or without grazing livestock to increase the chances of your restoration being successful. Alongside this we will be testing out our plant ID skills with a seedling identification session. We are very kindly being hosted by Malcolm and Ann Russell who restored 1.5ha of grassland as part of the 2022 Botanica Project supported by Air Wick… Read more →
Spring into Action with Plantlife
Plantlife are hosting a series of webinar events this February as part of their Spring into Action series. Whether you want to learn about identifying plants, explore our relationship with the environment through language or find out more about the places where Plantlife works and what they are doing or take action yourself, there is something for you. Full details… Read more →
Meadow Plant ID training session in Urishay
On 24th June Stuart Hedley, county plant recorder, led the second of our plant ID training sessions in the field at a site in Urishay. Participants split into small groups to carry out quadrat surveys and get to grips with common meadow plants, including some trickier species like cat’s ears and the hawkbits. This time, as well as in an… Read more →
Herefordshire Meadows July Newsletter
After a slow start everything is now looking very lush and the meadow flowers are blooming. June was the month to begin doing plant and bumblebee surveys and we hosted a number of in person trainings to assist people with this. All of the frenetic meadow activity culminated in two very successful events hosted in Titley and on the Bromyard… Read more →
Meadow Plant ID training session at Bromyard Downs
On 10th June we finally managed to hold our first, in person, outdoor, training session for over a year at Bromyard Downs with Country Botanical Recorder Stuart Hedley, former County Botanical Recorder Peter Garner and Caroline Hanks, Catherine Janson and Sue Holland all from Herefordshire Meadows. The aim of the training session was for participants to familiarise themselves with the… Read more →
Herefordshire Meadows June Newsletter
After an unseasonably wet May, we write this hoping that there are warmer and drier times ahead, as our summer programme begins in earnest and in-person field training sessions finally become possible once again. Traditional meadow habitats don’t just encourage plant biodiversity, they are also vital for a wide range of animals, particularly insects and pollinators. With this in mind,… Read more →