The warm winter and summer floods in 2007 meant it was a confusing year, not just for us, but the flora and fauna as well

IRECEIVED approximately 12 to 15 text messages on Monday morning and afternoon telling me that I should leave work immediately and come home. Yes, it was raining, admittedly quite heavily and persistently, but surely there was no cause to drop everything and rush home. After-all, this is the 21st Century. Our modern infrastructure would surely be able to cope with a bit of excess water.

I mentioned the texts in passing to my boss and we both laughed out loud saying that it really wasn't a good enough excuse for leaving work early. Well, we both ate our words later in the day. She was out with the sandbags all evening, preventing the nearby beck from engulfing the garden, and I never made it home.

It isn't that I live in a damp, low-lying place; quite the opposite. The house sits prettily on top of a panoramic hill, but that means that all roads leading to it are lower and hence were swimming with water. I circumnavigated my home, thrashing through torrential rain, sleety showers and knee-high puddles, but just couldn't get through, to the point that I almost began to question my decision to buy the small economical, environmentally friendly vehicle as opposed to the practical, all-terrain 4x4 country wagon.

I ended up spending the night with some friends in town. As it was, it turned into a small impromptu party deserving of a commiseratory bottle of wine and a comforting, tongue-tingling Indian meal.

It's not just us, though, who are inconvenienced by the extremes of climatic change. The past year has been extremely confusing for our plant and wildlife. A warm start to last year followed by cooler temperatures and extremely wet weather meant that many animals, birds and insects emerged, flowered and bred earlier than they normally do, only to have their nests or food sources or pollinating insects washed away in the summer floods.

Our favourite spring flowers are in danger of becoming extinct because of such climatic changes, with some varieties blossoming up to six months ahead of their normal time. Lilacs which usually flower in April to May have blossomed in November; camellias, which show off their winter colours from February to April were in full flower in November.

Over the past 50 years, crocus plants have shifted their flowering time by a good two months in some places.

The main problem with all of these changes is that if we do get a severe frost, the plants that are in flower open themselves up to decimation and disease. In addition, some of them may well fail to be pollinated if the weather conditions are not favourable, or their dependent insects are still in hibernation or still dormant and pupating. Bluebells time their spring flourish to coincide with the leafing up of the tree canopy above them. If they bloom before the leaves, they may not get the shelter that they have been used to and may die off, without seeding.

Warm, wet weather provides the perfect conditions for the spread of fungal infections. In plants this includes botrytis, blasts, mildew, moulds, wilts, blights and rots. The quintessential symbol of our country, the oak, is under attack from oak decline, threatening to wipe the tree out as Dutch elm disease did the elm.

In Spain the fungus is killing up to 190,000 trees each year (and also affecting the production of jamon Iberico puro, or acorn-fed ham, worth £43m a year to the Spanish economy).

A parasitic fungus called amphibian chytrid could be the catalyst for extinction for our frogs and toads. The disease has so far proved unstoppable and could wipe out up to 80 per cent of out native frogs, toads, newts and salamanders.

It all looks like doom and gloom, but there is some good news on the horizon.

The warmer shores of southern Britain are beginning to tempt the French Champagne grape growers over the Channel in search of new vineyards. There are even talks of extending the zone which allows legal use of the Champagne tag as far as Kent, Dorset and Devon.

So, while our woodland may lie bereft of mature trees, spring bulbs and flowering shrubs, and our ponds might lie silent and bereft of croaking amphibians, we may still be able to drown our sorrows in a glass or two of something wet and bubbly.

■ Brigid presents the BBC Tees Gardening show every Sunday from 1-2pm. Questions can be answered on the day by e-mailing brigidpress@bbc.co.uk anytime during the week, or texting 07786200995 and phoning (01642) 225511 during the show.

THERE will be up to 26 different varieties of seed potatoes, many of them organically certified at this weekend potato day at Natures World in Middlesbrough on Sunday.

The event links in with a local craft and farmers market, and begins at 10am, finishing at 2pm.

Tubers are sold individually and here will be advice on all things potato and organic from local experts. If you miss the day on Sunday, you can catch another event, also run by Durham Organic Gardening Society at Bowburn Community Centre on Saturday, February 2.

JOBS THIS MONTH

■ Prepare ground that is to be planted with perennials, bedding and vegetables with well rotted manure. You don't have to dig it right into the soil, but fork it in gently and allow nature to do the rest.

■ Protect bulbs from mice and pigeons by laying a sheet of chicken wire over the area and covering it with soil. The bulbs will grow through, but the pests wont be able to dig them out.

■ Rhubarb crowns can be planted outside in a previously well manured bed.