The Big Meadow Search is a project begun by Carmarthenshire Meadows Group in 2021. It started out as a county project but there was a lot of interest outside Carmarthenshire, so it soon because Wales wide, and then UK wide.  The project runs each year from the 1st June to 31st August.  If you’re not familiar with the project or its aims, you can read all about it here: https://bigmeadowsearch.co.uk/.

You can enter your results on the BMS website at the above link.  Any relatively species-rich grassland area is relevant, meadows obviously, but also lawns, churchyards, footpaths, the coast path, disused railway lines, road verges (avoid major roads with fast moving traffic, choose quiet lanes and be prepared to move out of the way when a car approaches), amenity grassland areas around car parks and industrial estates etc.

Record the date, the location (ideally a nearby village name, a postcode or a grid reference which can be read from a free phone app such as “GPS OS Grid Reference Finder”), roughly how long you spent on your search, and how big an area you searched (e.g. less than a tennis court, between tennis court and football pitch, bigger than a football pitch).

The number of sites surveyed has grown year on year:

If you’d like a BMS done of your own plot but are not able to do one yourself, let us know on bigmeadowsearch@gmail.com, as we may be able to find a volunteer to do it for you. You do NOT have to be an expert botanist to take part!  Just identify what you can, all records are useful including those of common species which many people won’t bother to record.