In July, West Drayton WI members were all invited to a tea party to celebrate the birthday of NHS. It was held in the garden of one of the members, and we enjoyed prosecco and soft drinks followed by homemade cakes and tea served in china cups and saucers. There was a quiz to identify plants in the garden and we coloured in cards to send to NHS workers we felt had helped us in the last year. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed meeting and chatting and a good afternoon was had by all!
Meanwhile in the gardens of West Drayton…
Back in lockdown in the spring, our gardening ‘expert’, Liz Morrell, had the great idea that we could all have a go at growing potatoes.
Most of us had never done it before, but by this stage of the many lockdowns, we were ready for anything new!
Liz ‘chitted’ the seed potatoes ready for us and then we all collected a few with a small amount of chicken manure (very smelly, but the magic ingredient, we were assured!).
We planted them in any container we had, and as the leaves appeared, we kept covering them in more soil, adding the manure after 4 or 5 weeks.
My haul was about 2.5lbs (1 kg), but others had 6 or 7 lbs (around 3kg)and it’s definitely on my list to do again next year. Nothing beats the taste of freshly dug new potatoes, cooked with a bit of garden mint.
