Truro window cleaner plants trees on every street he works on
A nature-loving window cleaner from Cornwall has spent the past 30 years planting trees on nearly every street he has worked on.
Richard Argall has planted around 1,000 trees in and around Truro and still continues to look after many of them.
There are few streets in Truro where Richard hasn't been involved with planting or looking after trees.
The 61-year-old is now encouraging other people to "get planting" to brighten up their streets whilst supporting local wildlife and the environment.
The Tree warden, who is also an ambassador for the Forest for Cornwall project, developed an interest in nature at a young age.
He said after replanting his first tree, he was "hooked."
Richard said: “I’ve been growing things since I made the connection between a pea shooter and peas growing in my parents’ garden.
“I always had house plants and when as I got older I started getting involved with allotments.“When I moved to my present home and there was a small self-sown hawthorn growing in the garden. I didn’t want it where it was so I thought I’d replant it.“That was the first tree that I actually planted. Once you do something like that then you’re hooked. That was it. That was the spark.”
Richard became involved with several projects along side Truro City Council's parks department, Truro in Bloom and Cornwall Council's tree officers.
Over the years he has planted trees in public spaces, schools, graveyards and private gardens.
“I’ve always been a self-employed window cleaner.” he said.“I came up with the ambition to plant a tree in every street I clean windows. I started to ask customers if they would like a tree in their garden.“You will see a tree on pretty much every street that I have worked on. There are some streets where there are no gardens but they are very far and few between.“I visit many of these trees every day. Some of them I walk past twicea day and I never get tired of looking at them."
Thousands of trees are being planted all across Cornwall in a bid to help tackle climate change.
Richard, who is supporting the project, is urging other people to get involvedand start planting in their area.
“My advice is to start simple. Look around at newly planted trees and see if there is anything you can do to help them.“If you want to start planting trees there is a lot of help and support for you.”
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