Transects
Walk a line, count what's there.
Walk the line
A transect is just a straight line you walk, counting what's in flower at fixed points. Do it the same way twice a year and you have a record.
How we run them
line 50 m, fixed with two posts points every 5 m, a 1m quadrat count species present, in flower repeat late june and early september
What it tells you
Not how pretty the meadow is — whether it's holding. A line that gains one species a year for five years is a meadow on its way to permanent.