East facing gardens

[moveblues]

How do you cope?
Nothing seems to grow, really! It's taken til October for my tomatoes to turn red?

How warm is it where you are/which part of the country? Although tomato plants obviously need sun to grow etc, warmth is crucial to ripening and many people bring their tomatoes inside to ripen at that stage because of the risk of blight later in the season. Things will grow, but you may not be able to grow some of the things you would like with the same successes as someone with a different aspect. The weather this year has been very odd, fruit and veg growing as been hugely affected, so if you're new to your garden, don't discount that. There are lots of veg and fruit that can be grown without so much sun/warmth, so you could try that. You can work very hard at keeping plants alive in the wrong conditions, or buy the right plants for your conditions and watch them thrive with much less effort. It is really disheartening when things struggle though!

I'd cope by taking my first coffee of the day out and lap up those early morning rays, glorious!
In all seriousness it's been an odd year for veg. We are south facing and my toms were also still ripening in October. Friends opposite us ( due north aspect) have an amazing garden plenty grows it's just a different set of plants than would thrive in my garden. We grow figs they grow tree ferns, right plant right place.