{"id":10165,"date":"2021-08-24T10:14:38","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T09:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10165"},"modified":"2021-08-24T10:25:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T09:25:56","slug":"national-meadows-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10165","title":{"rendered":"National Meadows Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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National Meadows Week<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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We celebrated National Meadows Week in July with a ‘walk and talk’ around the Upper Orchid Field. We are fortunate to have this facility on our doorstep and it is well used by visitors, dog-walkers and joggers whilst providing a haven for wildlife. The UK has lost around 97% of its wildflower meadows in the last 100 years and there are few remaining examples around Cardiff and the Vale.<\/p>\n

So, what is a ‘meadow’? It is an open area with herbaceous and other non-woody plants and from which a hay crop is taken every year. It is not grazed by livestock. Fields which are grazed are referred to as ‘pasture’. The vast majority of the non-arable fields in Wenvoe are pasture, mainly grass and with minimal biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Hay meadows are an important element in mankind’s cultural and social evolution. Finding food for livestock over Winter was never easy but once we had developed the tools like sickles to be able to take a hay crop, cattle, sheep and goats could be kept in enclosures during the coldest months and fed the stored hay. And so, we had haystacks, hayricks and barns.<\/p>\n

The hay meadows attracted plants that would grow happily in grass, would set seed and then be cut in the Autumn for storage. These flower varieties are very different from the weeds of arable (ploughed) fields like Poppies, Corncockle and Cornflower. In contrast on the Upper Orchid Field you will find Primroses, Cowslips, Knapweeds, Agrimony and, of course, Orchids, along with over 100 varieties of herbs and grasses.<\/p>\n

\"\"This range of species is ideal for our threatened bees and other pollinators and the disappearance of our meadows is one of the reasons for the decline of our insects – a crisis which we are warned about daily by scientists. Meadows also act as a carbon sink – another topical issue. In next month’s issue we shall say a bit more about the Upper Orchid Field – who owns it, what its status is and what the Wildlife Group are doing to preserve it. In the meantime, enjoy the field and its flowers and trees. On our walk we found Bee Orchids – a wonderful but easily overlooked little plant. What can you find?<\/p>\n

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The Upper Orchid Field<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We celebrated National Meadows Week in July with a ‘walk and talk’ around the Upper Orchid Field. We are fortunate to have this facility on our doorstep and it is well used by visitors, dog-walkers and joggers whilst providing a haven for wildlife. The UK has lost around 97% of its wildflower meadows in the last 100 years and there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-2DX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6245,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6245","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":0},"title":"National Meadows Day","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th July 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"National Meadows Day National Meadows Day is an annual celebration of wildflower meadows across the UK. The event takes place on or around the first Saturday of July every year. National Meadows Day events are helping to raise awareness of the importance of meadow conservation of a fast disappearing habitat.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Living With Cancer Strollers"","block_context":{"text":"Living With Cancer Strollers","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=307"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Picture5-LR.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9056,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9056","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":1},"title":"13 Years of the Upper Orchid Field","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st February 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It is around 13 years since the Wildlife Group first got involved in looking after the Upper Orchid Field. At that stage it was quite neglected and the sloping area was covered in self-seeded Ash trees. At first the Vale of Glamorgan Council were prepared to cut the field but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Picture5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6295,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6295","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":2},"title":"Fox and Cubs = Orange Hawkweed","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th July 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox and Cubs Early July saw lots of these flowers in and around Wenvoe which with the benefit of colour would appear orange and brown. Nice to see that gardeners had often mowed around them. They are a wildflower known either as Fox and Cubs after the colouring or more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/hawkweed.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11424,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11424","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":3},"title":"Last Wildflower Meadows Near Cardiff","author":"Alan Williams","date":"16th April 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group Visitors to the Upper Orchid Field will have seen that the field has been cut. This is one of the last wildflower meadows near Cardiff so is an invaluable resource for wildlife as well as being a popular recreational location for walkers, joggers and other visitors. An\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Picture9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10819,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10819","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":4},"title":"Went to Mow the Meadows","author":"Alan Williams","date":"13th December 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group Meadow Mowing Our thanks to the Vale Local Nature Partnership who not only cut the Community Orchard for us last month but have now cut Cae Ysbyty at Goldsland, the Hospital Field. This is the first time the small meadow has been cut properly and should help\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Picture16w.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9920,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9920","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":5},"title":"Donation of a Moth Trap","author":"Alan Williams","date":"12th July 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group The donation of a Moth Trap to the Group by the Vale Nature Partnership has dramatically increased the number and variety of species we are finding and recording. Most moths fly at night and whilst we do find some of the day-flying moths or disturb some resting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/buff-tip.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/buff-tip.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/buff-tip.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10165"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10176,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions\/10176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}