Progress up hill.

Another lovely sunny day that saw me in a foul mood for no reason. Doing anything feels like peddling a bike with the brakes full on, but I got a fair bit done.

I went up the street to the local hardware shop (a fantastic place that sells everything) and bought a 10l top up of seed compost. Not cheap but I buy something there fairly often on the "use it or lose it" principle.

I fed the conservatory plants with the new stuff I'd bought. It doesn't go as far as I thought - their definition of a standard watering can is half the size of our two main ones, which I don't think of as super-sized!

Then I cleared the lawn, and settled down to sowing. I sowed one pot each of things; if/when they come up, I'll sow more. Heartsease, campanula pixie blue, alyssum, statice, echium, nepeta, crambe cordifolia (AKA slug banquet), candytuft, black poppies (I adore these but they failed last time, suspect theyre dead and they should be sown in situ I know), godetia, night-scented stock, white snapdragons, and cornflowers. These seeds are between 3 and 6 years old, it amazes me they work at all. So far the best have been morning glories and snapdragons.

I dug up a dead acanthus mollis. The crown is brown, rotting and smelly. I couldn't see anything in the soil but I dug up a fair bit and have put it in the landfill bin, not the council compost one. I'm a bit worried about this. It's right next to where the privet hedge died. We replanted that last autumn with hornbeam, and every single one has taken and is in bud - nearly in leaf. Nothing else near seems affected. I hope it's nothing serious. We have an acanthus at that front that is very successful; the two I planted on this other site never came to anything.

I sorted out the canes - this took ages. Then I planted a row of 9 sweet peas along the back of the bed where the acanthus died. They are a potential-suicide squad: I will see how they get on. I put beer traps out for the slugs.

Tomorrow I'm away for the week-end again.