It is a sobering thought that no one alive has ever experienced a Winter and Spring in the UK as wet as this has been and, as we go into April, there is no sign of the rain stopping. This obviously affects every garden and gardener but, on the up side, it has been mild and everything is growing well.

February in my garden - and most gardens across the UK - was unrelentingly and miserably wet. When it was not actually raining it was muddy, with constant flooding. We were forced to dig up the whole of our Long Walk and lay perforated drainage pipes to try and take away and spread some of the rainwater from our buildings as other parts of the garden were literally saturated and the fresh water had nowhere to go.

There are two kinds of people: those that think of February as the lowest point of the year and those that love it and I am firmly in the latter camp. 

February is the month when the garden really starts to come alive and grow even if the weather can be severe and the days are still short. In February something is definitely happening. There is a thrill in the air.

This garden and all who sail in her is floating into 2024 - almost literally. It has barely stopped raining for the past three months and as I write this the fields as far as the eye can see are under water as is sections of the garden .This is rather beautiful in a calm rather surreal way, especially in the brief gaps between downpours when the waters are still and become a vast lake appearing overnight. But mostly all this rain just means mud, slippery paths and the frustration of not being able to get on with much work in the garden without making a terrible mess.