Beginning to garden

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With two exceptions (my courgettes and watercress) everything in my garden has almost taken care of itself. It looks green and lush, flowers have flowered and fruit has weighed on branches . The only task was to keep plants that shouldn’t be there out – Oh, what a wonderful garden I must have prepared that is so enticing to uninvited guests!!

However, this weekend I started to worry a little. After bearing a few salads worth of tomatoes my tomato plants have turned a woody brown at the base and this unexpected change made me realize I don’t know what I’m doing.

My troubled tomato plants

This small problem let me know how little I know, and it’s a strange feeling, almost a mild panic, to have so many vaguely formed questions but not know what the right ones to ask are. I think it’s mainly about veg – the shrubs look just dandy and my herbs are spreading faster than we can eat them, but the veg seem more vulnerable.

I might ask some of these in the questions section later on, but for now I thought I’d let you know that I’m wondering if my tomatoes are going to be OK? Is September late for chili peppers and sweet peppers to be ripening? Should I uproot either of these to bring inside?

Just a few red chilis at the end of August

My onions are still in the ground, I snapped the leaves of one to see what happened but they stayed green and grew sideways, the outer leaves are starting to turn yellow now, but when do I pick them?

I’m really happy with my garden so far, it just dawned on me that it’s been mainly down to luck :o)