Not that I'm any expert here, and there are many here far more expert than I, but I used topsoil that I brought in from Lowes and my raised garden did pretty well. Maybe the composte somehow got contaminated. Test your soil Glad the tomatoes did well for you. Did your herbs do well? How about fertilizing? Did you fertilize and what did you fertilize w/? I learn new stuff about every yr!

yes, a soil test may be in order :( I fertilized with Osmocote pellets a couple of times. But I really don't want to. I'd rather use completely organic methods.

A little mysterious. With all that compost and manure acidity should not be the problem, nor lack of nutrients. Is the material quite well broken down and able to stay moist for days after watering?

What are daytime highs and nighttime lows, on average since you planted the second time? Since the first crops did ok it seems weather is the most likely factor.

Cukes were bitter because they ran short of water at one time or another.

Well phbrown, the temps here are hot; upper 90s and into the triple digits. 60's at night.

If that's true jean, then I suspect my plants are not getting enough water overall. I understand that tomatoes do better when they are not watered too frequently, so that might explain why they are doing better than everything else. Gardening, I find, is so much trial and error! right? Maybe next year I'll have to try planting my tomatoes in a totally separate plot from the melons and squash so that the watering can be more precise for their needs.

The weather is not right for beans, so scratch those from your list. The herbs are dormant, no surprise there. I can not make sense of tomatoes and melons, they both do well without much water. Perhaps the sub soil is much too compacted for melons. Concur that bitter cukes is a clear sign of underwatering. I think that if these are your typical temps in the summer, you should restrict yourself to melons and watermelons, peppers and eggplants, okra, sweet potato, and cowpeas. There are other hot weather vegetables, such as chayote or malabar spinach.

You can try contacting your Master Gardener program in your county. They will be familiar with your climate, soil, and current weather conditions.

Here is a link that might be useful: California Master Gardeners - county links

Thanks glib... I think you're right. The sub soil under my melons is hard clay, so probably not the best for deep roots. I didn't know beans don't do well in hot weather. Maybe I'll try planting some now for a fall harvest. That's one nice thing about this cimate: we can grow veggies all year :)

If the highly organic material you have on top of the hard dry clay tends to dry out quickly then together with high temperatures speeding the evaporation that explains the problem, even the hot-weather crops can't tolerate it.

Several years of incorporating that OM into the clay beneath will give much better results.

yes pn, I believe that may be the case as well. I'm going out today to get some vermiculite and top soil to incorporate into the beds. Hopefully that will help with water retention.

Better to till in the organic matter you've already got. Purchased "top soil" is often poor quality and almost always full of weeds.

My current vegetable garden was started where we took out a tennis court over rocky clay. We trucked in some soil, but it's taken several years of tilling in organic matter before it could be called decent soil for growing. My first crops were truly pitiful.