Few more pics

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Strawberries: not enough information.
Zuke: if you can't rub off color, normal for that varietyy.
Fertilizer: new soil needs it. Maybe you put in too much, maybe not, hard to tell from here with paucity of information. You can flood the box (that has far too little soil) and flush out nitrogen. Maybe that will work if you are worried about overfert.
Watermelon: what do you think the box will accomplish? Do you think the watermelon will produce 4-5 watermelons in that box, maybe they'll stack on top of each other?
Spacing: peppers likely too close together. Zuke too close to everything and each other. Melons too close together. In that space you can trellis one melon in the back next year. No free-flowing melons in that box unless it is dedicated to melons and you account for them flowing out the box.

Dan

We can't offer any kind of help, in my opinion, until we know what kind of planting medium you've been using. Which LOOKS bone dry, though appearances may be deceiving.

Strawberries: what more information do you need? we put used coffee grounds into the soil to increase the acidity (separated from rest of box with plastic lining. there are 3 different varieties.

Fertilizer: we put a cup to cup and 1/2 per 2 cu. ft.
Watermelon: no idea, thats why i asked. the one on right is a baby watermelon. other is cantaloupe
Spacing: the squash were planted on the edge so they can flow over the box. the peppers are 6" apart currently - should we remove every other and that would be appropriate spacing?

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we used Patio Plus Organic soil from Home Depot.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100160888/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Recommended by the home depot employees

First of all, congrats on your new interest in veggie gardening. It is a fun hobby and you will get better at it and more comfortable with it as you gain more experience.

Regarding strawberries - sometimes a plant or two simply dies from transplant shock. I wouldn't worry about the rest of them. Pull out the dead ones and throw away.

Clear container - should work but make sure it has drainage.

Spots on Zuke leaves - it is a natural occurrence on some varieties, but could it be fertilizer residue from watering with a water soluble fertilizer? Either way, both are not an issue to worry about.

Transplants not growing - give them more time. They want to spread their roots after being confined in the pots and then will start to shoot new growth above ground.

Soil - I am not an expert on this subject, but as a general rule I never rely on 100% manufactured soil or soil mix. IMHO your "soil" looks like mulch - it consists of largely undecomposed brown organic matter with no soil minerals. Brown organic matter like wood particles consumes nitrogen as it decomposes. I always cut purchased soils with "true" soil to get the beneficial microorganisms and trace minerals into the mix. If possible start doing home composting and adding that to your soil between seasons - really helps and is a great natural fertilizer. In your position I wouldn't change anything at this point except to maybe mix in or sprinkle on a little bit of "true" soil in the open places. Your new soil should be much better for you by next planting season as it will have decomposed nicely as well as hopefully been amended by you by then.

Fertilizer - if you over-fertilized your plants would be "burned" by now - yellowing leaves turning brown and crispy. I don't think you are having any issues regarding this but always be careful to not overdo it - follow all instructions regarding fertilizer use and frequency of use.

Watering - make a hole with a couple of fingers to check soil moisture below surface. If it is dry an inch or two down then water. Do not overwater - let surface dry between waterings. Mulching retains soil moisture very effectively so if you are able to do this I recommend it.

Plant spacing - a common mistake amongst veggie gardening newbs is cramming too much stuff into the garden (I still catch myself doing this occasionally). One wants to plant as much as possible but one really needs to follow plant variety spacing guidelines to get the best production of quality produce. All this info is available in seed catalogs, on seed packets and plant labels, on the internet, in gardening books, etc. You will learn about this issue as you gain experience and actually see how your stuff grows in your own garden. A simple fact is that every veggie gardener always wants to plant more veggies than for which they actually have garden space. That is where the discipline of experience comes to play.

Advice:
1.) With small gardens go vertical if / when possible with vining /running type veggies. You will get a bigger return on your garden space that way. Lots of trellis ideas in GW forums - just do a GW search.
2.) Your stuff is looking fine for the most part. Accept that not everything works every year.
3.) Do not micro-manage. Veggie plants are hardy things and will produce with a lot less attention than you might think is needed. Have garden in a sunny location, have good soil, water when dry (do not overwater), fertilize only occasionally, remove weeds when necessary, monitor for disease / pests and react when necessary, harvest and enjoy.

Best of luck to you. Keep us updated.
-Tom

Is the bottom of the box open to the soil below? Hopefully it is, which will help a bit with spacing issues and moisture retention. You may want to add more drip irrigation lines. Your soil looks like the water is going straight down instead of spreading out over the roots.

In the future, you may not want to rely on Home Depot employees to be reliable source. A local nursery would be more likely to have knowledgeable employees, or best of all, do some research on your own. I know I tend to find about 8 or 9 things I didn't know I needed to learn every time I go look it up for myself. :)

Also, regarding fertilizer, it comes in different strengths and ratios, so a measurement like a cup doesn't really say anything. And don't rely on a manufacturer not changing from bag to bag; sometimes they do. Just check the instructions every time.

Good luck!

IMO...peppers way too close together. Those squash plants are going to push out that one tomato plant on the right side. They'll take over half that box in a month.

The white spots could be powdery mildew (hard to tell without seeing closer shot). Spray with Neem Oil and keep reapplying every 2 weeks and pray.

Agree that the soil looks bone dry.

I'm about 10 miles east of you in Allied Gardens. Here is a picture of a 4x4 bed last year with 1 zuc, 1 yellow squash, 1 spag squash and 1 acorn squash after about a month. The zuc is in the back left and the yellow squash is in the front right.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash in raised bed

Wow thank you everyone for all the replies and help.

Tom : The clear container is cut out at the bottom so it was a place for roots and drainage to go. As far as spacing goes, the peppers are big bertha and are about 6 inches apart from each other. Then at the end of the row is edamame and the cucumber. Added a crookneck squash in the front along with a red pepper plant. And here is the fert we bought, http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Lawn-Plant-Care-Shrub-Tree-Fertilizers/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Fertilizers-Shrub-Tree-Ornamental/Kellogg/h_d1/R-202247320/h_d2/ProductDisplay?productId=202247320&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053. As far as true soil goes, do you mean just the soil in our backyard where grass should be? lol. Thanks again for the awesome post, you help us out a lot!!

We thought the same thing about asking home depot employees. We first went to a nursery and figured they would be all about giving us the time and energy to help us build a new garden and have us spend our money there. This was not the case at all, guy told us 2 corn plants would produce 5-6 heads each plant, never told us about acidity in strawberry soil so we had to go back and return 12 strawberry plants. Anyways, long story short our local home depot has people who have been gardening in san diego for 15 years + and are certified etc. It is by far the best place to go for us now cause 2 of the people actually take the time to review our pics and go over any questions we have. Genesee and Balboa Home depot rules!!

About spacing finally, should we move the last tomato plant in the row next to the squash plants? Take out a couple pepper plants even? Or should we just let it go as is and see what happens and learn from our spacing mistakes? Whats the worst that could happen? Are the squash plants just going to dominate the entire box?? From that one guys pics looks like our zucc and squash are going to be HUGE lol.

Thanks again for all the posts, well keep asking questions and updating pics as the summer continues!

Every other pepper should come out, along with a zuke and at least one of the melons.

Dan

I agree, Thin the peppers and the zucchni, every other plant.. the watermelon needs a 3x3 ft area just by itself, same with the zuch.

It's fantastic that you've gotten into gardening, and when I first started I barely had anything grow a decent crop!

The rule of thumb for pepper plants is a foot and a half to two feet between plants, and between rows. Pumpkins, watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers, zucchini and any other sprawling plant should get a 3x3 area to itself.

Of course those are ideal, maximum spacing, and you can get away with smaller clearances, but you will have to water more and fertilizer more, and on a regular basis to discourage plant competition.

If you're at all interested, I'll post a link to my Garden, maybe it will give you an idea of different things to try.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden

If you want to garden intensively like this, I suggest the original bible, "How To Grow More Vegetables" from John Jeavons. Your library probably has it. Some of his garden plans for staggering vegetables may help you situate things more optimally.

For this year, I'd go with what you have, just thinning the way Dan said above and watching that your watering is even. You may utterly fail. You may do great. You'll probably do somewhere in between. Whichever way you'll learn stuff that makes next year better.

Get two gardeners together and you'll have at least three opinions. Sometimes there's nothing to do but see what works for you in your spot. For example, I'm glad I didn't know about the 3x3' rule for watermelons. My single plant filled up and sprawled out of it's 10x20' bed, over the fence and well into the orchard last year. Yours at least is a compact variety -- but "compact" is relative. It's still got the potential to be a very large plant. Of the two, I'd keep the cantaloupe. Watermelons are tough to succeed at and don't really taste better than the store. Fresh cantaloupes are divine.

LOL thanks alabamanicole, I should have mentioned that the 3x3 rule only works when you take the spade to any part of the watermelon that gets out of its "zone". I'm a very hard nosed german kind of gardener, and 3x3 is all that plants will get. mine weren't compact, I just made them so.

I agree with you though that melons have priority over watermelons, given their superior quality and taste

Here is a link that might be useful: Illinois garden

The white spots on the zukes don't look like any kind of powdery mildew I've ever seen, although if it looks different on zukes than beebalm or lilacs, it could be.

chudak: "The white spots could be powdery mildew (hard to tell without seeing closer shot). Spray with Neem Oil and keep reapplying every 2 weeks and pray." I didn't understand this comment at all. Your picture is about as close as it gets. Advising folks to spray any kind of "stuff," especially on food plants when you are not certain is a bad idea. Praying is always good, though.

I think you will end up cussing the plastic around the strawberries. You mentioned putting coffee grounds in the soil. Next time, I would recommend adding stuff like this to the top only if not composting it first. The suggestion to start a compost pile is an excellent one! The most beneficial long-term thing you can do for flowers or veggies is to enhance the fertility, drainage and tilth of your soil.

If the same things worked everytime in every situation, everyone would do it the same way. Think of this as your learning experiment and have fun!

@purpleinopp Yeah, after looking at a couple of the squash pictures more closely, it looks like the white spots are just variegation from that particular species. I would however point out that neem oil is an organic spray and is pretty commonly used in vegetable gardens and will certainly do no harm. In fact, sprayed occasionally it will actually PREVENT powdery mildew, which I had attack my squash with a vengeance last year when we got a couple of weeks of overcast/foggy weather here. The OP is closer to the coast and will have more problems than I did. It will also keep aphids, spider mites and other things that he is likely to encounter out here from taking hold.

I'd also suggest that he visit Walter Anderson Nursery down in Loma Portal. They have a much better plant selection and much more knowledgable staff than any HD I've ever been in. Their prices aren't horrible either like Armstrong's.

I know "true soil" is kind of a dumb term, but what you stated in your response is exactly what I meant. Find a place on your property where you can dig up some of the native soil and mix it into your purchased soil. I would guess an amount like a 5 gallon pail-full at most, spread around your garden should be enough. Mix it in. Make sure the soil is actually soil and not construction fill, and be reasonably certain that it hasn't been contaminated with oil, gas, or chemicals.

I must warn you there will probably be weed seeds in the dirt, so if you don't like that thought then skip the whole idea. IMHO getting the beneficial organisms mixed into the purchased soil in your garden will outweigh the negative of some possible weeds, but it's your garden so the decision is up to you. You could certainly wait until the off-season to add it for the next growing season.

chudak, thanks for the info. Personally, I still wouldn't use it but like knowing more!

UPDATES!!

Ok thanks to all for all the help and with some of the suggestions we photoshopped a pic of what we think it should look like according to everyones suggestions.

This is what it looks like now.

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and what we think it should look like if we moved stuff

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Thanks for all the help!! Cant wait to see updates :)

Oh and there is a tomato plant in the top just hangin out cause we have no idea where to put it or if it even needs to be moved.

bump

that looks fine. Can you tuck that tomato in between the ?daylily? and the rock in the bed by the fence on the upper left? Tomatoes have flowers, you know. :)

That is a corn field up by the rock. Hmm were not sure if we are going to move the tomato next to the squash or leave it :/

Nice Photoshopping!