Seven months ago the gardens of Wordsworth House in Cockermouth were wrecked by the December floods but, thanks to the tireless work of a gang of gardeners, they are looking wonderful once more.

Head gardener Amanda Thackeray said: “It’s taken a tremendous amount of effort, but I’m thrilled to say the garden is looking lovely. It’s difficult to imagine now that on December 5 the whole thing was engulfed by several feet of muddy, silty water.”

The house where William was born is no stranger to flooding – like the rest of central Cockermouth, the National Trust property was badly hit in November 2009. Part of the listed walls and terrace were badly damaged and mature trees came down.

“We did lots of restoration work which really helped this time,” said house manager Zoe Gilbert.

“But there was a huge thick layer of mud and silt all over the plants. We have insurance but not for the plants. Amanda was desperate to get in with her volunteers and clean up the mud and silt so the plants could breathe. We were uncertain about what would survive, it was a real lottery.

“I’m delighted with how it looks. Amanda and her team of 12 volunteers have done an amazing job.”

Ms Thackeray said: “The flood cost us a lot of plants and left us with a huge amount of cleaning up and replanting. A few areas are still awaiting replanting with herbs, but the bulk of the work is done now and the rest will happen shortly.”