Fertilizer. Your bed was filled with a lot of half-rotted compost and it is tying up all of the available nitrogen. Lack of available nitrogen is causing yellowed leaves. Add some nitrogen and you should see everything green up right away. It will be better next year.

^^^ Whose bed was “... filled with a lot of half rotted compost” which is “ ... tying up all of the available nitrogen”?

nothing a little leak directly in the bed will not fix, Nancy.

^^ That's funny whether the bed is inside OR outside! :-P

To the OP, if you don't have much room for compost, put stuff down as a mulch between rows or whatever, and let it decompose there. It will feed the soil over time. Still need some fertilizer for short term recovery though.

It was not half rotted compost. It was gravel and bad soil. That stuff was dug out and was supposed to be replaced with a good vege mix soil.

I bought some organic fertilizer today and will apply and HOPE my daughter remembers to water while we're gone for 2 weeks! (I know, I know, here we go traveling during gardening season again, but it's SPRING!)

The "soil mix" was very likely partially rotted compost. It will break down over the next few months and be great next year, but this year, at least early on, you'll need to add a little nitrogen.

How big a job would it be to scrap the raised bed? You say your natural soil is fine so why make work?

I thought maybe you filled it with imported OKLAHOMA soil. lol.

I have noticed many people with "easy" raised beds or even platform beds that are actually pretty useless as an actual vegetable garden. They are worried about making it "easy" more than really growing stuff. Weed barriers and such. I guess few weeds were growing up thru that gravel, so I guess that worked for what they were worried about. I find it odd that people will work to be lazy. Why bother spending the money/ time in the first place?

Floral, the raised bed was well constructed and we spent considerable $ having it re-done. I've always had raised beds where I used to live and had very good luck with them. I really don't want to spend MORE $ to tear the bed down.

I thought the guy was bringing in quality vege soil (which I've purchased for many previous raised beds), but apparently he just got the soso stuff.

Noki, I noticed other areas that the former owners skimped on (lied about!) They actually HID the pest control report until the last week and wouldn't negotiate once it was discovered (10K, but nothing that has to be done right away)

Oh well, we're in a 1914 craftsman bungalow on the fanciest Street in town for about what we sold our 1 1/4 acre country place for!

Happy as clams, walk everywhere, mortgage free and back to gardening!

I like my raised beds. I recently injured my knees and I can tend my vegetables without kneeling down. My dog doesn't bother them and they're fairly weed free. Once you get them going, just add compost and/or fertilizer periodically and you can have continuous crops. Of course, that's a benefit of living in socal where we don't have frost. The garden in the photo is a little messy, but you get the idea. The third bed is hidden by the tomato plant.

lgteacher, I had 7 4x8 raised beds total and gardened in the raised beds for 18 years before I moved here. I also had a pretty decent compost set up.

The problem is that I had a supposedly decent landscaper dig out the rubble and replace the soil with (I thought) a decent vege mix. The veges I have planted in this box are not thriving. I'm just getting back into composting and don't have much available.

I'll be fertilizing tomorrow (had to wait a bit cause of all the May rain we've been getting!) We'll see!

I did a liquid fertilizer a few days ago, and am already seeing some greening up on the beans and lemon cucumber! Will do another good soaking just before we leave and hope my SIL remembers to do it mid week!

Have to let the soil dry out a bit so the plants will actually soak up the fert after yet ANOTHER bout of rain! This has been the wettest May ever! The beaches at the Russian River that usually start their season with Memorial Day weekend are closed due to high water!

Actually, they can suck up more nitrogen, if it's well diluted. Your soil mix probably drains fast as well because it's likely to be pretty chunky. Roots like to grow in the interface between water and air, so chunky mix can be good, but it does require more frequent water.

lg teacher like your garden. is that metal on the middle bed the one with your sign.Just wondering

I wanted to do metal lined... But hard to find hired help

as I have mostly and still working on wire and hdwe, cloth "bins" 2 to 3 ft tall .. 3 to ft or so wide.

Still got sev more to fill bottoms with old sticks, logs old leaves before I add bagged dirt prev Mixes and new 2 scoop bought from Nursery compost (expensive)and 1 big scoop of top soil Lots of work. But lat yr they did well. Now to get my gb started. I wish I had 2 of me to get it all done> LOL

JX the mix isn't really chunky, but it does drain well, so I'll go ahead and give it another shot of fert. Thanks

Did a light fert to the raised bed. Things are looking better (though nothing like my old garden!)

But, whatever! It takes a few years to get established.

Kind of a re-learning time!

All the in-ground things (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash) are doing great! The raised bed is doing better, but still struggling!

do a mixed cover crop this winter, you will be halfway to where you want to be. After 3 winters it will be very good.

Funny, I think I had the same problem this spring in a bed I added soil to last fall.

It was already raised about 4-6" but I raised it up in late summer with a mixture of nice dark topsoil plus a bunch of compost from the City operation. Theirs is finely screened so it's really nice. I added about 8-10" to the bed in Aug. and planted fall greens in Sept. They grew great and some survived the winter in the cold frame that I dropped on when it got really cold.

This spring I planted tomatoes and they looked terrible. Pale and slow growing. I had planted some others in a different, older bed and they grew like gangbusters. I finally put some liquid fert on them and they look a little better but they are way behind.

The compost had a lot of shredded wood in it (it's made from yard waste) and you can see bits and shreds in the screened material. Somehow it didn't bother the greens, which I would think need a lot of N since they are leafy, but by spring, something was definitely going on.

I'll keep fertilizing and hope for the best, and maybe by next year this bed will be OK. You just never know.

Actually, lettuce is a very light feeder and will do well anywhere there is enough water. Tomatoes are very heavy feeders and usually need supplemental nitrogen. In both taxcrusader's case and the OP's case, the beds will settle down and be easier to manage next spring. However, since raised beds are usually used somewhat intensively, they will have an ongoing need for nitrogen.

I thought you weren't supposed to do a lot of nitrogen on tomatoes (green VS flowers)

I've pretty much just used compost in the past, but in a different area now and in ground are doing great, raised beds not so much.

I've been told that you shouldn't put nitrogen on tomatoes too. I was told that by someone who had 2-3ft tall tomato plants with scarce fruit. I put nitrogen on mine and they reach as high as I bother to support them and produce fruit that I give away by the bag. I suppose that you could provide too much nitrogen, but so far I haven't done so! There's a lot of garden advice that isn't based on science or data

Nitrogen is quite volatile. It is easily washed out of soil and will also form gasses and be lost to the atmosphere. Depending on your soil, most fast growing plants will need it. Other nutrients are less necessary since they are more stable in soil. Soil tests generally don't report nitrogen content because of its volatility. Your compost may provide adequate nitrogen, if you're getting good growth. However, if your growth is weak and spindly and sun is sufficient, insufficient nitrogen is usually the cause.

I put nitrogen in my soil when the tomatoes first go in. That gives the foliage a big boost when I need foliage to be formed. But never after that. The added nitrogen has probably leached out by the time fruiting is necessary. Compost provides little nitrogen, and very very slowly. But that's probably what tomatoes need when they are fruiting.

I've got enough compost to cover the 4x8 bed now, so I'll dig that in and wait a month before planting my winter stuff. Should bring the critters up to do their work! Nancy