MELVERLEY FARM

Big, high hedges crowned with mature oaks, ash and horse chestnut enclose small fields that hum with insects and brim with different grasses and flowers. There are also several field ponds, good places for dragonflies, frogs and newts.

Old, flower-rich hay meadows rarely survive now outside nature reserves; Melverley Farm, amazingly, continued in its old-fashioned farming ways, right up until 1995, when the Trust bought it.

Look out for old favourites such as ragged robin and kingcups; also spiny restharrow, like a tiny pink gorse bush. All these plants

used to be much more widespread; here you can still count on finding them.

Part of the farm is grazed by cattle, the rest is hay meadow. June is the best time to visit, when the meadow is in full bloom, with yellow rattle, orchids and ox-eye daisies. But remember this is a working farm with livestock, so please shut all gates behind you and stick to the paths!