Melksham’s bloom hopes wither due to lack of volunteers

MELKSHAM is unable to take part in this year’s South West in Bloom competition again due to a lack of volunteers, says the Melksham in Bloom team.

The town won gold for four consecutive years in the South West Bloom competition from 2018 to 2021 but didn’t enter last year, due to a decline in volunteers to help with tasks such as watering, planting and maintaining floral displays. And now, the Melksham in Bloom team has said it’s unable to enter again this year due to a lack of volunteers.

One of the Melksham in Bloom team, Terri Welch, said, “We have lost lots of volunteers. Last year we were down to five people and this year we are down to fewer than that. We have asked for help but maybe we have gone about it the wrong way.

“It is not just a matter of planting a few flowers, but maintaining and improving the appearance of the whole town and we haven’t got enough people to do that.”

When asked what it would mean for the town to be able to enter into the competition again, Terri said, “Civic pride. There’s certainly been a deterioration in the state of the roads with the weeds and things in the gutters.”

The group are looking for volunteers to join them and help with planting and maintaining floral displays, watering, general maintenance, growing plants in green houses, watering and gardening.

Terri said, “We have our own plots that need to be watered and one of our volunteers, Ruth, does a lot of watering in the Prince of Wales Garden and various other places. It would be brilliant if there was someone who loves growing things in the green house because that would be a big help.

“We look after the Friends Garden so there’s always this garden to be tidied up, the grass to be cut, new plants to be put in and weeded there.”

Plants are purchased by the Melksham in Bloom team, who recently welcomed a donation from a local lady who gave her entire coin jar to the group, Terri said, “Only last week an elderly lady had donated her coin jar to us. There was over £150 which is absolutely brilliant. We would be delighted to receive any donations to help our work.”

In addition to planting flowers around the town, Melksham in Bloom has a litter pick group who meet on the first Sunday of the month with the next one this Sunday, 6th August, at 1pm outside the town hall.

Terri said, “Because bloom started the litter picking on the first Sunday of the month, now there are several other individuals who do their own litter picks in their local area and I think that’s really good. I keep on meeting people who say ‘oh yes I take my litter picker out’; there must be about a good seven to 10 people who do it on a fairly regular basis, which certainly reduces the amount of rubbish and helps keep the town tidy.”

If you want to lend a hand and be a part of the Melksham in Bloom team, contact Terri Welch at 01225 702 800. The group is also aiming to hold a meeting in the autumn to encourage local people to take part and help the group move forward.