By Avril Done

Published at 15:45, Wednesday, 09 September 2009

THE July meeting began with the reading of the Alberta Creed and a minutes silence in memory of one of our members, Sheila Mitchell.

baskets: Beckgreen Nursery

Mrs Anderson read the minutes and informed us we had received the numbers of our tickets in the 300 club. Members were reminded that the car boot sale will be held on Sunday, September 20, when we will be supplying refreshments. The autumn council meeting is to be held on September 24. Members were asked to consider the idea of someone helping Mrs Stamper, our social secretary, with a view to extending our extra curricular events.

Mrs Lockhart introduced the speaker for the evening, Toni Magean, the open spaces manager at Copeland Council. We are all familiar with Toni’s regular gardening features in The Whitehaven News so it was fascinating to hear about the other responsibilities he has.

The department is of course involved in floral provision for the borough but they do however work closely with other agencies such as Whitehaven in Bloom to supply the various hanging baskets and beds, which decorate the town and the surrounding area.

They have used peat-free compost for the past two years and are also extremely proud of their conservation programme. We were interested to hear how 10 local schools designed the beds in Trinity Gardens.

The children spent a day with Toni and his team planting up the beds and each bed is marked with a plaque with the name of the school displayed. The plants are bought in as plugs as this is the cheapest option and are delivered to Beckgreen Nursery at Egremont. The plants are then grown on, ready to use in the various baskets and beds. The department runs a very successful apprenticeship scheme and one of these former apprentices is now employed at the RHS Garden at Harlow Carr at Harrogate. Toni went on to explain that other services under his jurisdiction include children’s play areas, bereavement services including the crematorium at Distington, allotments, and pest control. Members were surprised to hear just how extensive his department was and Mrs Dulcie Laird expressed the feelings of everyone when she thanked Toni for giving us such a detailed insight into his work. Toni invited members to visit the Beckgreen Nursery to see just some of the work being done by the department.

The following day, four members took him up on his offer and were shown around by Russell who was extremely willing to answer all our questions.

The raffle prizes were won by Mesdames Money, Anderson, Carruthers and Beattie. Mesdames Money, Birkett and Stamper won the competition for a pot plant.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 16, in Rosehill Barn at 7pm, when the speaker will be Rachel Oakley who will give a presentation entitled Wild Ennerdale. Rachel is from the National Trust and she will explain the work being done in the valley.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk