Does the soil and drain well? There's nothing wrong with using top soil as your primary medium, as long as it drains freely of excess water after a rainfall.

I grow a gorgeous and bountiful garden in native red clay. Of course, I have to provide nutritional support.....veggies are heavy feeders.

I know! Yes it drains well, I think. I added black cow manure and peat/sphagnum into the soil before planting. I fear the soil has nothing in it though! My plants look horrible. Need to fix now! Haha. Would rather add a foot or 2 of good stuff to start off right.

In your other post you say you water with ice cubes.
Well, I think you're getting behind -- need more, probably lots more. The plants are short of water.
Stick your finger in the soil to know for certain.

I don't remember saying anything about ice cubes!! ??

I'm pretty sure the soil is the issue :-(

"Stick your finger in the soil to know for certain."

Buy and use a moisture meter to check the soil's dryness. Plant roots need both water and air to do well. If it's too wet, the roots don't get enough air. And vice versa.

Many people buy something called "topsoil" and many people recommend this stuff called "topsoil" which is nothing more than the top about 4 to 6 inches of soil from someplace. How good any soil will be depends on its makeup. Some people cannot define what they mean by "topsoil" and apparently assume it is the same everywhere. I also find that many people think that "topsoil" is loam, and while it may be it also most likely will not be.

A good soil to use in the garden would be a mix of the mineral component, the sand, silt, and clay, and organic matter. Soil containing a mix of about 50 percent sand, 45 percent clay, and 5 percent organic matter would be a good start with more organic material added to bring the total to around 6 to 8 percent.

So, what is the mix of your soil?

What did a good reliable soil test indicate about the soils pH and nutrient levels?

What does the soil smell like? A good rich earthy aroma is what a good healthy soil will smell like.

Since the soil drains well look at how well it retains moisture as well.

This link is about "topsoil" , http://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/pdffiles/sfn14.pdf

kimmq is kimmsr

Topsoil is perfectly fine for raised beds, and if you added black cow manure, your soil should carry a sufficient nutrient load. Unless your soil is very sandy, and/or lacking organic matter, I'd skip the peat moss.

If you do use ice, stop IMMEDIATELY. Very cold water will kill or serverely slow growth of a plant.

The only thing I can think of is over/under watering, or perhaps the soil was contaminated. (made with grass/leaves that contained some sort of weed killer) What is your watering regimen?

Never used ice.. Not sure how this started! Haha. Hmm contaminated? I'd hope not! Would a soil test show this?

This is probably something simple, like water, nutrients or pH.

After addressing the moisture issue - you haven't told us how the soil feels below the surface moisture-wise - then I would contact whoever you got the soil from and ask if they have had any reported problems with it. Ask them if they have any test results, NPK or pH for example.

The second pic looks like dry conditions to me, brown tips. The first pic looks like a tomato with a phosphorus problem, which could be caused by high pH. Sometimes this can happen from lime used in manure, either manure you added or manure they added to make the topsoil blend. Ask them if they added manure to the soil.

Purple leaves in tomatoes can also be caused by cool temperatures.