Trees have been planted outside Ottery’s new library on Monday as a lasting memorial to the town’s gardening club.

The group closed down at the end of December due to a drop in membership but agreed to distribute its remaining funds to charity.

At the end of January, £3,401 was split between nine causes including Ottery in Bloom and the help scheme.

The gardening club also spent more than £300 to purchase new trees including two Ginkgo biloba fastigiatas for outside the library.

Other causes to benefit included the Royal Horticultural Society’s campaign for school gardening,the Kew Foundation for its millennium seed bank, the Heritage Seed Library, The Bumble Bee Trust and the local branches of Hospsicare and Vision OM.

Brian Nelson, former chairman of the gardening club, said: “Being a gardening club we felt it right to be able to distribute to horticultural causes. Then we wanted to do something for Ottery as most of the money would have been raised by Ottery people and members of the club.”