March’s meeting was again well attended and we were delighted to welcome three guests for the evening, who we hope to see again.

During the meeting members regaled Bob Bailey with an impromptu chorus of ’Happy Birthday’ to recognise his imminent landmark birthday. After club business was concluded guest speaker, Richard Budge, Truro City Parks Manger, hobbled to centre stage, having broken a toe the previous day. Besides holding a wide-ranging and demanding role, Richard also has his own small holding outside Grampound and coming from a farming background which can be traced back over 300 years, it is not unexpected that both his work and hobbies should be land related.

Richard and his dedicated team of over 20 people have a surprisingly large remit. Not only do they look after Truro’s parks and gardens, but also allotments, cemeteries, town centre floral displays, summer entertainments, play equipment and sports facilities. In today’s economic climate, they are always looking for creative and cost-effective ways to produce stunning displays. Indeed, many people will have seen the ‘Welcome to Truro’ arrangement planted with contrasting coloured lettuce plants last year as an example of maximising impact at minimum cost.

Allotments in Truro are always highly sought after and there is currently a waiting list of over 160, so Richard has worked with communities to set up co-operative allotments as a ‘taster’ to ensure they are fully prepared to take one on when a vacancy arises. This is just one example of how Richard and his team work with local communities to enhance their pride and involvement in improving their environment.

In the main, Richard ensures that nearly all bedding plants are brought on in their Boscawen Nursery, which normally produces over 300,000 plants annually, though some have to be sourced from elsewhere due to cost limitations. When this is necessary, Richard tries to buy locally, though this is not always achievable. In addition to the planting, grass cutting, flower bed maintenance, care of shrub and herbaceous borders and weed spraying that is required, members were surprised to learn that over 1,000 hanging baskets have to be watered every two days. To this end, staff work overnight to reduce inconvenience to Truro residents, shoppers and, of course, tourists. Herbaceous borders and shrubs are being increased to reduce dependence on the more labour intensive demands of annual bedding displays.

Richard is heavily involved in Truro’s entry to South West in Bloom and Britain in Bloom competitions. He is also a judge himself and next year will become the youngest RHS ‘Britain in Bloom’ judge - a remarkable achievement. To round off his talk, Richard played the members a DVD compiled as part of a previous Truro entry to ‘Britain in Bloom’ and his presentation was warmly applauded. It is safe to say that as a result of Richard’s talk members will be looking upon Truro’s city parks and floral displays with much more understanding and appreciation. Due to unforeseen circumstances our April meeting has been changed to April 28 at 7pm. George Kestell will be giving a talk entitled “Pruning - not just cutting what you can reach” and has kindly stepped in as our scheduled speaker, Ian Facey, regrettably, had a prior commitment on the 28.

The Club meets at Mabe & Youth Community Project Hall in Primelin Place, Cunningham Park, Mabe. New members and guests are always welcome. For further details, please contact Sue Mitchell on 01326 376418.