Spring showers

 Hi everyone. We've been a little quiet on the allotment front of late but the late spring rain has brought out renewed enthusiasm in us!
This is partly thanks to the lodge garden which is positively singing at the moment! Here is a picture of our Arthur Bell rose, an old climber which has been flowering prolifically in this, it's first full season in the garden. It's flowers start off as tight red buds and go all the way through the yellow spectrum to a beautiful pale cream - and they smell gorgeous as well!

Down on the allotment everything has had a drink in the lovely rain we've had today. Here's what's happening at the lottie at the moment;

Spinach from organic seed  - produces lots of medium sized leaves and are delicious in salads or steamed.

 Swiss chard bright lights - just starting to sprout some baby leaves with yellow, rhubarb red and white veining - can't wait to tuck in!

The pink fir apple potatoes were glad of today's spring showers!

 Chelsea may be over and these guys were quite popular there this year but check out Allotment Virgins very own allium christophii!

 Remember our poor little apple tree with the top chopped off from when we took on little lottie?
Here it is now on the left - lots of fruit this year!

 Mmmm blackcurrants :) Looking forward to experimenting making some drinks this summer including a lottie cassis - inspired by James' delicious damson gin and raspberry vodka from last year!
We have some of James' damsons in the freezer eagerly awaiting to be added to some gin for a delicious summer cocktail :)

Everything from the growhouse took a trip outside today - hoping the curcubits and herbs will benefit from the rainwater!

 Here is our first tomato fruit! Feeling a lot more confident about our triffid-like tomato family after seeing that Monty Don also planted some tomato seeds in January on Gardener's World. Looking forward to *hopefully* making some pasta sauce for autumn out of these guys!

Mixed lettuce for summer salad :)

Spring has been crazy here, very dry (today's rain has been the first proper rain in months) so we've had a couple of early harvests from our overwintering crops. As well as some delicious green garlic we have also had some salad onions and an amazing choggia pink beetroot which we tried for the first time in a salad with some lime dressing... tastes like summer might just be on it's way!

Love K&C