Neil Harris, gardens & countryside manager for The National Trust, explains how grass encourages wildlife.

Spring is upon us with a vengeance, and although we haven't had enough rain to get the river flowing, the fields and hedgerows are blooming with blossom, flowers and insects.

The fields that surround the church by Hughenden Manor are part of the park. Prior to the splitting up of the estate in the 1930s, cattle and sheep would have grazed all the way down to Coates Lane. The southern end was sold to Chepping Wycombe Council in 1935 as a public park, and although some grazing did continue, it is now solely cut by tractors.

The northern section is owned by the National Trust and can be easily distinguished by the longer grass, and during the summer months, there is evidence of cattle grazing.

For many years the grass in the park has been fertilised by the tenant farmer, however, for the last ten years, in line with the better understanding of the importance of grazed parklands, the grass has been unfertilised.

Over a period of many years the fertility of the grass will drop and as a result a wider variety of flowers and plants will grow. Indeed just above the church is a small area of park that was part of the garden of Park Cottage, and so remains unimproved. Here we have a wonderful display of cowslips and now just coming into flower ox eye daisy.

On Green Farm we are managing the grassland that has developed naturally from the seed bank. The last time the fields were cultivated, they were allowed to revert back to grassland. This we graze once the flowers have seeded and here one can see wild parsnip, marjoram, dark mullein and golden rod growing in abundance. This sort of management is good for many farmland birds and many, like the skylark, will be able to nest and bring up several broods before the livestock are put in.

On the arable land at Naphill farm, our tenant farmer has left field margins uncultivated and field corners unploughed to enhance the habitat for wildlife. Many of these areas contain volunteer cereals from last year's crop so can look confusing, check out the presence of straw from last year to tell the difference. Here too the melodic tune of the skylark will be heard well into the summer.