Country diary: A hardworking meadow that is surely worth saving | Mary Montague

Lower Botanic Gardens, Belfast: A precious field here provides flood protection and carbon research, and has a productive community garden. Still, it is in jeopardy Among many languages on the poster at the field’s entrance gate is a declaration in Ulster-Scots: This be oor fiel. Close to my home in the heart of an urban landscape, “our field” in Lower Botanic Gardens invites my idle wandering. Going by the desire paths that crisscross its floodplain meadow, I follow in many footsteps. Recently rewilded and recultivated for a new age, this council-owned field has always responded to the needs of the times. The field grew vegetables during the second world war, and grew families in prefabricated housing after that war ended. Today, in subtle and transformative ways, this cherished place still provides for and protects local people. Belfast is built on the estuarine clay of the River Lagan, which passes by the field, separated only by the narrow rim of Stranmillis embankment. In my mind’s eye, I can see the expanse of tidal mudflats that were once here. At a time of rising sea levels and pluvial rainfall, this area is at screamingly high risk of flooding. Following its commitment to