Wetter winters leave Northamptonshire gardeners and farmers puzzled

Farmers and gardeners have said rain "falling almost every single day" has had an impact on rural life.

The owner of a popular stately home garden in Northamptonshire said the flowers there were opening up and fading much earlier than usual.

The operator of a children's farm, meanwhile, said he was having to keep more of his animals indoors for longer to protect his fields.

The UK had almost 50% more rain than usual in December.

Ben Barraclough runs Mini Meadows Farm in Welford, Northamptonshire, where families get a chance to meet everything from guinea pigs to llamas.

He said: "Winters are getting much longer and wetter, so that makes things everything more difficult as far as looking after the animals is concerned - more animals have to be under cover.

"Since September, it seems to have rained every single day. It's not like a little bit of drizzle, it's absolutely torrential rain."

Over at Coton Manor Garden, a popular tourist attraction in the grounds of a 17th-century manor house near Guilsborough, owner Susie Pasley-Tyler has been musing on the early demise of the snowdrops.

She said: "I'm afraid the very warm winter has brought them on terribly early and they've not been helped by the mass of rain we've had because it does knock them for six.

"They're very valiant, they do their best, but they're struggling and they are now beginning to fade."

She said other plants had also bloomed earlier than normal this year.

"Fortunately, because everything's early this year, there are other things coming on and the hellebores are resplendent - they've loved the rain," she said.

"I've never seen anything like the buds on the magnolias, and they're just starting to open.

"Normally that would be at the end of March. It's ridiculous."

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