Andy Garnett and his wife, the writer Polly Devlin, bought Cannwood Meadow in 1983. Realizing that this Somerset meadow, which has benefited from benign husbandry over many years, contains an amazing variety of wild flowers, grasses and rushes that provide feeding for moths, butterflies and other insects – some of them very rare – they asked English Nature if they would be interested in making a survey of the field. As a result of this survey Cannwood Meadow was nominated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by the Nature Conservancy Council.
This book presents an illustrated record of Cannwood Meadow through the seasons, an account of its ecology and a review of its plants, animal life and husbandry, compiled by the Garnetts with the assistance of botanist Dr Chris Smith. A special feature is that it includes reproductions of pressings of 108 plants, which can thus be examined in minute detail. It is an invaluable record of a year in the life of an English meadow.