A cold, wet, windy weekend with only occasional bursts of sunshine wasn’t exactly conducive to spending time in the garden. A quick foray to harvest some chard for dinner and that was it.

In the garden beds that have yet to be dealt with, weeds run rampant.

I know gardeners who tackle weeds in short bursts each day; half an hour at most, working in a methodical fashion until it’s done.

Unless they have to rush off to work afterwards, or cook dinner, or meet some other deadline, I have no idea how they do it. (But I’m almost certain they wouldn’t have braved the weekend’s cold and blustery weather, no matter how disciplined they are.)

Once I start working in the garden, I have trouble stopping. After I’ve been scrabbling about for a couple of hours, my partner usually tells me that I’ve done enough and isn’t it time I stopped, and I answer that I’ll come in soon. An hour later, feeling pleasantly warm, I drag off my boots at the back door. The following morning my body thinks I’m 105.

So much rain in Spring is a godsend even if it does limit our time outside. The forecast is for a damp week although tomorrow, the driest day, threatens early-morning frost. All the better for the broccoli.

In the vegetable garden the spinach and chard is powering while beetroot, peas, broad beans and lettuces are coming on stream. A second wave of kale and broccoli will be ready in a couple of weeks.

Having almost exhausted the bok choy, we’ll probably pull it out once it’s flowered. Then we’ll plant some more seedlings.

The strawberry plants have benefited from weeding and are starting to spread. Hopefully the fruit won’t be eaten by lizards or insects before it’s harvested.

We should be planning our Spring plantings now but dare we hope for a Summer that will be kinder than the last? Of course we do. Because without hope what’s the point of gardening at all.