Full Metal Wheelbarrow

I bought a new bag of potting compost today (do try to contain your excitement at the back there.).

I've been using B&Q's own brand peat-free compost and while I wouldn't blame it for my poor germination results this year, I've been rather dissatisfied with it generally - it tends to have a lot of big lumps of bark in it, which are no use to man or beast and can hurt when accidentally grabbed in a handful of compost. The last bag of it seemed rather dry, too.

So this time I got a different brand - Westland - which is slightly more expensive, but looks like much nicer stuff - lighter and fluffier, more moist and with fewer lumps. So I used that today to pot on my summer-sown brassicas. Those have been quite a bit more successful than the spring sown ones - I potted up thirteen borecole seedlings and ten cabbage Tundra.

Also potted on were my two artichoke seedlings which I'm growing on as replacements - several of the established plants suffered badly last winter and I'm not sure how long I can expect them to last for in any case, so replacing them a couple a year seems like a good plan.

The winter pansies are starting to germinate too, so I hope there'll be lots of those to brighten up the garden in the autumn.