Another set of Suncatcher Cards has been added to JoSara. This set of 3 cards have hand painted pictures of summer garden borders. There's a wildflower border with poppies, cornflowers, and daisies. A border including magenta foxgloves, and white cowslip. And the final border has blue delphinium, pink echinacea, and orange rudbeckia flowers. They are designed to be displayed with the light shining through them so the translucent paint used lights up and brightens the design. They would make great birthday cards for gardeners, or just as a general card to brighten someone's day. Unique, traditional, and contemporary at the same time. And perfect to have a set tucked away for when you need them.

✿ FLOWER GARDEN ✿  
- Later into February prune Group 3 Clematis before they start properly growing. Cut each stem to approx. 30cm tall, just above a healthy pair of buds. Clean away all last year’s dead stems.

- Now is the time to check any climbing plant supports and replace them if necessary.

- Prune any wall shrubs, or deciduous hedges now before the birds start nesting.

- Remove any faded flowers from your winter pansies which will stop them going to seed and will encourage new   flowers in the warmer weather.

- Plant bulbs of Lilies and Allium.

- Start sowing flower seeds indoors to get them started. Check the packets and see which ones can be sown now.

✿ VEG GARDEN ✿
- Keep feeding your garden birds. Fat balls are particularly good for energy. If you keep feeding they’ll keep coming and in the summer they’ll be your free, organic pest controllers.

- If you’re growing early season potatoes (I usually have a couple of potato bags of these on the go), buy the seed potatoes, and start chitting them now. Chitting means you put the seed potatoes in a cardboard egg carton, or something similar on a cool light windowsill and let the shoots start to grow out of them. This will give them a head start when you plant them out.

- There are loads of  veg seeds that can be started indoors now. Broad beans can be planted out straight into the ground now, or you could start them in pots and transplant later on.

- If you’ve got autumn fruiting raspberries in your garden, cut the canes down to the ground now ready for the new growth to appear.

- Prune fruit trees now while they are dormant. Check what type of tree you've got though. Some trees fruit on last year's growth, so if you prune that off you'll lose this year's crop. If you can't remember what variety you've got, leave it alone this year and keep an eye on which branches bear the fruit so you'll know for next year.