Staff from tube stations and depots have been potting, planting and pruning ready for the Underground in Bloom competition.
Ealing Common maintenance depot in Granville Gardens, after last year’s success, have entered with their display of flowers, fruit and vegetables.
Last year they won the Dennis Sanger Chief Operating Officer special award, reaped first prize for the newcomers category and third prize in the fruit and vegetables section.
This time, officers at the depot have added dalle chillies and leaf mustard from Nepal, capsicum peppers, long chillies, beak chillies, apple trees rescued from neighbouring bushes, sweet cherries, plums, pears, five different varieties of lettuce, choi Cham Chinese leaf, Pak Choi Chinese leaf, mini plum tomatoes, beak apple, strawberries, three different varieties of beans and some red radish.
The work was done by Dev Rai, Krishna Shrestha, Bhim Guramg and Hariram Rai who are all retired soldiers from different British Gurkha Army units and are now working as security staff at the Ealing Common depot.
As part of their school curriculum in their homeland Nepal it was compulsory to be taught about agriculture from germination to harvesting the crop hence the reason why they are so green-fingered.
Mr Rai said: “This year was very exciting for us to be able to add a lot more plants to our fruit and vegetable patch which grew very successfully after all the hard back-breaking work we put into it.
“We regenerated the flower beds from last year with more new flowers.”
The Underground in Bloom judging took place in July and the awards ceremony is taking place on September 30 at City Hall, London.
