Hay Time in the Dales

Did you know...

• The meadow area beside the barn features blue and mauve flowered Geranium sylvaticum and yellow buttercups, while where the meadow blends with the hedgerow of native trees, purple spires of foxgloves can be admired
• The stone roof and walls of the barn are encrusted with mosses, ferns and ivy, while the twin borders of the cottage garden in front feature blue catmint, reddish Astrantia and glowing white Geranium phaeum

About the garden

This representation of life in the Yorkshire Dales incorporates a small converted barn complete with cottage garden, a broadleaved woodland with species typical of the Dales, a beautiful hay meadow packed with wildflowers.
 
Many barns that once housed sheep are now houses, the species-rich hay meadows on which those sheep were fed are now grassy fields – no wildflowers
 
The landscape is changing. Thanks to the Hay Time appeal by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) donor crops from acient hay meadows are being harvested and spread on fields throughout the North of England to help re-establish the wildflower meadows.