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The Tube station with a direct line to fruit and vegetables
Miranda Bryant18 Aug 2009
Tube workers have created an "Underground allotment" to supply staff with fresh fruit and vegetables and bring "biodiversity" to the Northern line.
The garden was established by the station supervisor at Brent Cross and supplies TfL employees with everything from runner beans to leeks, parsnips, pumpkins and blueberries.
Ian Hutchings, 44, leads five volunteers who work at the station and offer their services in exchange for fruit and vegetables. They do not use pesticides and have laid out logs to encourage insects. Mr Hutchings said: "I was taken aback by everyone's enthusiasm. We will definitely carry it on next year and rotate the crops so we get healthy produce and soil."
He said they decided to grow pumpkins so staff can give them to their children at Halloween.
The garden is in full sunlight but below platform level, so it is not visible to passengers on passing trains. The project started as an entry for Underground In Bloom - a TfL competition for staff to improve stations by growing plants. But now the allotment is set to become a permanent fixture. Mr Hutchings, who came third in the competition with a garden in Hendon Central last year, is also supervising allotments in Colindale as well as Brent Cross.
More than half the Underground is above ground and houses 10 per cent of the city's wildlife habitat in the form of about 1,000 animal and plant species.
The Standard is campaigning for more people to grow their own fruit and vegetables to encourage a move towards sustainable living.
London Underground chief operating officer, Howard Collins, said: "The competition shows there is a lot more to the Tube than tracks, trains and tunnels. The work of staff, beyond the call of duty, helps to create a more colourful and pleasant station, which can benefit passengers while protecting the variety of wildlife and plants."
Winners of Underground In Bloom will be announced on 10 September. Tube stations that enter are given £100 to set up the projects but in most cases staff fund the work themselves.
Reader views (3)
I love "More than half the Underground is above ground"
- Eastcoastjac, Durban, SA, 18/08/2009 16:10
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Bob, brevity is the soul of wit
- Dan, London, 18/08/2009 13:22
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I would've thought there were already enough vegetables on the Northern Line, they're the one's the think that Bob Crow is some sort of deity.
- Bob, Cheam, 18/08/2009 12:45
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