Officially, Spring begins at the vernal equinox on the 21 March, but according to some it starts on the first day of the month. I think all of us in the UK can agree that there was absolutely nothing springlike about St David’s Day this year. But by yesterday, Spring was definitely in the air at Charleston.

I have not been able to volunteer in the garden for a whole month thanks to half term and other commitments, so it was wonderful to be back, especially as the sun came out to greet me.

The most exciting development is the new kitchen garden, which has been finished to an incredibly high standard by one of the other volunteers, who has put in many hours of labour to create this wonderful potager. I think Vanessa Bell would have loved it!

Head gardener Fiona put me to work helping to prune an overgrown rose. Rosa Felicité Perpetue is a rambler, so we were taking out old wood and shaping it, ready to be rewired, rather than cutting it back hard. Here is the before picture and I forgot to take an after shot – next time.

The sun shone at lunchtime, as we sat on the bench in the piazza, feeling almost warm for the first time in weeks.

Then after lunch, it was time for some clearing in one of the beds outside the studio. I dug out lots of Japanese anemone to give breathing room to an old rose, cleared alliums and celandine and moved a couple of foxgloves away from the santolina hedge to give both more room.

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to the garden for another week. It may still be wearing its winter coat, but it won’t be long now until Spring arrives properly.