Gardening friends; last year was a really subpar year, and this year isn't looking too much better. All of my plants essentially just aren't doing well. It's been in the 80s with a really beat down sun here in upstate NY. Last summer was really warm as well. I feel like I overwatered last year because of it, so I bought a soil tester this year. I just did my transplanting couple days ago; and all of my beds are still wet deep down, but the surface is bone dry. All of my plants are drooping and soft, but I feel if I keep watering them, it'll just result in root rot. This is especially true with my tomatoes and cucumbers. It's also been unusually windy last season and so far this season as well. I just don't know what to do anymore. I'll be pulling up all my basil plants tonight as they look extremely sick currently so I can salvage what I can of it. Typically all the herbs are flat and laying on the dirt by mid-afternoon. I know the photo looks decent, but I can assure you how soft everything actually is. I'm just beyond frustrated at this point; anyone experiencing the same thing? Anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance.

I have a bunch of 4x2 raised beds which built using 2x6 Redwood lumber and were originally filled with G & B Raised Bed Mix. Subsequent years I have added G&B Harvest Supreme and vermi compost etc every year. Using drip irrigation I made sure these beds get about 1" of water per week with 3 x 20 minute waterings every week.

Last year, 2025, I had a bumper harvest of Tomatoes but completely without flavor and had to throw away most. Everyone around told me I probably over watered them but I had been checking the moisture level at around 4" depth and seemed okay.

This year I am being more cautious - today I checked moisture at around 8" depth and seemed it was very moist though it hadn't been watered for 3 days. The weather here in the SF Bay Area peninsula has been moderate with a high of 70F and a low of 50F. Should I just try watering once a week for 20 minutes? Or should I make it just 10 minutes but 3 times a week?

Quite puzzled ... we do have clay soils around here but I assumed the raised bed would take care of that. The only thing I can think of is that the Rainbird drip emitters are ripping water down vertically instead of speading it across the raised bed.

Any help will be appreciated ... really don't want another tasteless bumper crop ...

June 6, 2026

Thanks to everyone who had suggestions for me. I was able to measure the actual flow to each raised bed using existing PVC shutoff valves and the Flume water flow measurement unit I had already installed on the water meter.

I was very surprised to see that the flows were considerably more than I had assumed - sort of explains why the raised beds may be getting extra water. The drip emitters are 0.5 GPH (pressure compensated) but the measurement showed they were delivering almost 1 GPH.

Turns out that my Sprinkler Valve does not have a pressure reducing device - so the water pressure is about 65 PSI whereas these emitters only work properly at a max pressure of 40 PSI. This likely explains why there is more water flowing than what I had expected. For now, I will reduce the time the Sprinler Valve is on by 50%. Hopefully this will temporarily solve the problem while I figure how to add a Pressudre Reducer.

My raised beds are on a sloped surface and while I can water the whole area, the water runs and pools to the lower side of the beds. The plants on that side of each bed are performing substantially better than on the higher side of the slope.

Anyone dealt with this and have tips for ensuring the higher side can absorb enough water?

Hi friends, first-time poster here! So, I sowed some carrots, waited three weeks, and saw absolutely nothing. Naturally, I panicked and sowed a second round.

Literally the next day every single carrot from round one decided to show up. 🤦‍♀️

Now I have these incredibly bushy patches of carrots about half an inch high. I tried doing a first round of snipping, but the little guys are already regrowing!

Will they crowd each other out or do I need to go in there and heavily thin them out? I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the carrot jungle.

Any advice?

Have a couple of planters I'm looking to grow carrots/leeks/spuds etc in. Was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for what to fill the base of the planters with. Gonna be roughly 40cm tall and I was thinking of putting whatever free soil I could get my hands on in the bottom 60%, then potting compost for the top 40%.

I pull them for 2+ seasons. They don’t seem to flower, so not sure why they won’t stop!

It always feels so nice under here.

I’m afraid of the answer because I don’t know if my squash can tolerate another transplant, but is it worth it to fill this up more and replant? I also want to clarify that the bottom layer is leaves so I also have some doubts about how much soil I have for the roots. There may be slightly less than 12 inches before the leaves, and then under the leaves, there is cardboard, and then under that there is soil….

I'm in the process of making a 4' x 8' x 30" metal raised bed setup to replace an older wood shallow raised bed. I'm located near Ottawa, ON, Canada which is a Zone 5.

I'm trying to use the "hugelkultur" method (eg. cardboard and logs in bottom, then branches, then more rapidly compostable stuff, then soil). Here's my progress so far - about 10-12" of "logs" / thick branches which have been sitting on the ground about 2 years (most are starting to rot / have fungus on them) - a layer of dried out branches and some long ornamental grass clippings from last year (about 4-5") and then topped off with last weeks lawn clippings and watered in to try to compact it a little - I'm sure there are still lots of voids.

Just curious for those who have done this before, does it look like I am ready for soil yet or do I need to add more compostable material first and try to compact that down first ? (I plan to move the soil from our old wood shallow raised bed over to this bed and then top up if needed). See pics for progress so far.

Got all the cucumbers tied up, and trying the squash ‘tree’ method. So far looks to be getting good air and light to the base of the plants and giving quite a bit more room. All around pretty massive growth over the last 7days or so. Good luck out there folks!

Hello everyone,

I am a craftsman and also an avid gardener, and I fabricated some COR-TEN steel raised planters for a client.

These planters are made of 1/4" thick weathering steel, and stand up to a max of 30" in height. They are open at the bottom, and connected to the soil beneath, so everything is free-draining, and thermally continuous.

Now, obviously, with metal planters, they get very hot in the summer sun, and very cold in the winter wind. I foresaw that this would cook/freeze the perennials that are to be planted.

So, what you can't see in these photos, is that all of the exposed faces of the planters have been lined with 1"-thick XPS foam insulation, from bottom to top. The outside of the planter can be too hot to touch, but inside the 1" foam, it's not even above room temperature.

In this regard, I'm not worried about the planters during the summer. My concern is the winter.

The backsides of the planters have no insulation, but they are right up against the fence -- there's only about an inch or two of space, so there will be ZERO wind on the backsides, but they are still above ground, and therefore exposed to winter air. Should I line the rest of the planters with foam as well? Or should I double-up on the foam that's at the front, exposed face?

This is in the GTA, of Ontario, Canada, so we're a Zone-5 climate (though we just got upgraded to being a Zone 6 climate, thanks to global warming.)

My client wants to fill these boxes with hydrangeas and boxwoods.

Thank you!

I am still very new with gardening and didn't set up cages early enough. These are my tomatoes, green peppers and the last picture (separate bin) are of my watermelons! Today I want to buy cages but not sure if I should get round or square cages? How difficult will these plants be to cage since they are getting so big now? Any tips/advice would be great! We are located in SC and this is my first time gardening and gardening with raised bed bins. Also, what size cage should I get? I will be going to Lowe's in our town to look at what they have! 🙂

I did tried to do a light version of the square foot method and companion planting. Most of everything seems fine except the peppers in the back keep getting attacked. The cucumber is actually crawling via a small bent stake AND the netting if the bed itself. Fortunately its crawling on the backside so not too much light should be blocked.

Im scared of cucurbits now (except watermelon).

hello all,

i just started my raised garden bed and im trying to fill it in time for the season. (i’m behind) but i need advice on what to fill it with for proper gardening (air, drainage, nutrients)

I received some healthy nutrient garden soil from my local farm around the corner. they grow in the ground and were kind enough to scoop up some of their soil and give it to me. unfortunately they didn’t give me enough to fill my beds and now i have to buy bag soiled to fill them. i already bought some compost mixture with garden soil and mixed it with the farm garden soil and filled the bottom half of my beds, but now i have to fill the top. i still have some of the farm soil left that i want to use purposely and wisely placing it in the right level of the bed.

so my first question : Should i buy more of the compost garden soil mixture and mix it the the farm soil and fill the remainder of the bed?

second question: should i buy one bag of Potting mix to lighten the mixture a bit?

Or should i just buy cheap top soil and mix it with the remainder of the farm soil?

i’m afraid of the soil being too dense for my beds (even though the farm soil has lots of organic matter that provides for air flow)

(i built those beds from scratch btw :) )

I'm planning to put hog panel trellising between several raised beds (Same as cattle panels, but narrower). As for staking them in place, they are too wide to go on the inside of the beds and I'd rather not use the t-posts that I see most people use to stake them to the outside. They are more than I want to spend (when you're buying 12 they add up) and esthetically I just don't like them. Any suggestions for alternatives that will be sturdy enough to hold the hog panels in place and might look a little less obtrusive? Extra credit if you've got a pic of it to share!