Mild Winter has Caused Confusion for Nature

Summary

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STRANGE times in the Fraser household's garden - and I expect in many Echo readers' too. I don't think there has ever been a time where I have celebrated new year with roses opening outside the dining room and the summer's geraniums still blooming - and with plenty of buds yet to burst.

The winter bulbs have been coming up for some time, too, and the small potatoes I lobbed into the flowerbeds when harvesting - and I use the term in the broadest sense - my two potato bags this summer are now flowering. It's like some weird virtual world out there, Gardenville, where you can grow anything at any time. There are butterflies still to be seen around Exeter too - what effect is all this warm weather having on the rest of our wildlife, that goes about its business unseen and ought to be hibernating? In the meantime, ripening blackberries can be found in grounds of County Hall.

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Extract

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Mild Winter has Caused Confusion for Nature

But while it is delightful to see pinks and reds in the garden in January, this mild weather is not so great for the farmers, some of whose crops are having to be ploughed back into the ground. Cabbages, sprouts, broccoli and cauliflowers have matured two months earlier than...

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