The Big Experiment - Soil Mixes

After having very  limited success germinating seeds I've turned my attention to the soil type.
Where I live in the UK the weather is very erratic to say the least, my seedlings suffer terribly from damping off.
That coupled with the fact I'm always overwatering my plants, something has to give!

I've tried 3 different types of propagator.
self watering, Sainsury's basic and also a giant thing with built in ventilation.
all have met with limited success.
The self watering seem to be the best for actual growth but then they fall over very rapidly from rot.
The giant one with vents got too hot and baked the seeds on a freak hot sunny day, but what grew did really well.

On to my experiment the soil type!
I've planted 3 different types of seed in 5 different types of soil
The seeds
Rocket - Sweet corn - Alyssum
The Soil
1) the good stuff - John Innes seed compost - not cheap
2) 50/50 mix soil and vermiculite
3) 50/50 vermiculite and perlite mix.
4) 33/33/33 vermiculite soil and perlite
5) 50/50 perlite and soil

One thing i did notice was the vermiculte/perlite mix was a nightmare to use due to its form it stuck to everything except for in the pot once wet.

More photos of the same.
Another thing to note - the seeds are going to be watered with a camomile tea mix ( reported to be anti-fungal)
Currently Tues 31st of May - I will update this in seven days and see how things go there should be some rocket by then :)

The Rest Of The Garden

Here are just a few pics of the rest of the garden
1)looking down from the patio

2) Tomato plants about 2 months old bought from a garden centre

3)Tomato plants grown from seed again about 2 months old

The Garden Basics

My garden was started about 2 months ago, it happened very much by accident.
I was bored and really wanted something to do, i had sold my car to buy a bigger one but couldn't find any.
I had gone shopping with my wife and managed to talk her into buying me the above greenhouse/coldframe.
I don't know why i wanted it i just did. (as mentioned before i generally am able to wait for nothing and was going nuts trying to fid a car and had just taken up gardening :) )

About Me :)

After many years in the I.T. industry i have decided enough is enough.
I'm tired of being treat like rubbish when my job was to help people. "I understand your computers broke and your upset" but there's no need to treat me that way. :( (that's just how i feel now)
As for me, you've probably noticed my grammar is rubbish ( for starters) :) I once saw a film, a really bad film but the tag line was "if you want to change who you are, you need to change what you do"
I gave up my job as tech support, I'm a child minders assistant now.
I'm also the most impatient man on the planet. So I've taken up Gardening.
What is going to follow is what i learn and what happens (mostly so i can remember)