This week we are feeling so very grateful for the natural beauty which surrounds us, and for the first flowers which are coming up in the garden ready to pick.

Much of the garden is reaching maturity now, and this means that all our trees, shrubs, roses and climbers need proper care to be taken over their pruning so that they can give us their best flowers and thrive healthily.

Two years ago we made a new bed for hellebores, partly shaded by the high north-facing wall, and overplanted with hydrangea paniculata 'limelight'. The soil here is cool and damp, and we've improved it with two or three lavish applications of well-rotted organic matter.

In the mildest winter I can remember, the garden is still dormant and bare, but everywhere there are quiet stirrings of life.

Although this would be the perfect week to make a start on pruning all the hundreds of rose bushes we now have growing in the flower garden, this wet grey blustery weather is keeping us firmly indoors, except for little bursts of outdoor activity when we have to drive to school/take the dog out/feed the sheep...

The weather is truly wintry now, and the Flower Garden is starting to curl in on itself as the plants focus all their energy underground, before a burst of renewal in the spring.

Although the plants and trees in the countryside around us, and in our garden at home too, are turning from green to gold and gently shedding their leaves, the late flowerers at the Flower Garden are filling the beds with colour and softness.

Usually at this time of year we think of warm oranges and reds, and look for rich autumnal colour in the garden.

The much longed-for rain has begun to fall, reviving the parched garden. Although we've loved the long sunny days - and have once again had quantities of unblemished roses to pick thanks to the dry weather - some of our plants have been showing signs of drought over the last few weeks.

The garden foliages are still fresh and luscious, but there is an umistakable mellow feeling of autumn beginning to pervade the garden now.

The favourite flowers of the high summer English garden are all here now: pillowy roses, scented sweet peas, trumpet lilies, lavender, late foxgloves, early yarrow...

Mid June is when the garden is at its most heaving with flowers, and also when the team is busiest.

It was with great delight this week that I picked for the first time the delicate little polyantha roses

It's always a treat when we're visited by the vibrant and incredibly organised Florence Fox, who is responsible for the charming video on the home page of our website.

All the established perennials - we have been here for seven years now…

There have been a lot of very pretty flowers going out from the garden these last few weeks…

Having always disliked the very overbred large yellow trumpets of the daffodils planted under the fluffy pink cherry blossoms next to the cricket ground in the Yorkshire village where I grew up…

On a sunny day, the Flower Garden looks truly springlike now, with blossom billowing from the branches of trees and primroses starring the ground at their feet…

Almost before we know where we are, the bulbs are flowering and we are delivering to our florist customers again.

Last week we moved three established bushes of the beautiful old bourbon rose 'Variegata di Bolonga'.