Hello Everyone,

I am new to vegetable gardening. I've been going through the threads for help. I decided to post for help!

I started a small 3'x3' raised bed garden patch in mid May with my little daughter. We also planted a few vegetables in containers. We are using a fabric raised bed and fabric containers. We also Kellog's Organic Potting & Raised Bed Mix in our raised bed and containers. I have put a slow release fertilizer when I set the bed and containers. We live in Maryland. The days can get pretty hot this time of year -- 80-90 degrees. The plants are placed in a sunny spot -- it gets 6-8 hours of morning to late afternoon sun. We planted some vegetables and herbs. I have a few questions.

We transplanted 4 everbearing strawberry starter plants into a 12" terra cotta pot. The leaves are green and there are new leaves sprouting from the crown. But I noticed the stems are red. Is this normal? I've read online red stems could be a sign of nitrogen deficiency. What can I do to help them? Is the 12" pot too small for 4 plants?

My daughter planted a squash seed in a 5 gallon fabric container. The squash seedling has sprouted up. I noticed the side leaves are slightly yellow. Is this caused by over watering? The leaves were wither-like during the days that are hot so we've been watering more frequently. The leaves are no longer wither-like but the lower rounded leaves have some yellow in them. What can I do to help this plant?

In general, all our plants are overall growing at a very slow rate and not thriving. We planted 2 different variety tomato plants -- beefsteak and cherry, each in a their own 5 gallon pots. I noticed the beefsteak is growing and recently has 2 flowers, but the cherry is growing at a much slower rate. I have neighbors on either side of me and they are both growing tomatoes. The neighbor on the left have like 5 feet tomato plants, super leafy and has baby green tomatoes on them. The neighbor on the right have 2 cherry tomato plants that are 3 feet tall. I have the shortest and wimpiest tomato plants.

We have 4 swiss chard starter plants transplanted into the bed. I haven't noticed the plants growing bigger or taller. They look slightly bigger than when we transplanted them. They have new leaves coming in. But the overall, the overall plants are not getting any bigger or taller.

I have not used a liquid fertilizer on any of the plants yet. Could this be the reason why it's not growing? I am planning to get Neptune's. Also, I have come to realize that the Kellog's soil we used is not the best. We didn't have very many options at our Home Depot and at the time, I didn't know that Kellogs wasn't a good choice either. I only realized this a couple of nights ago when I was searching online for answers to my garden. A lot of threads came up saying Kellog's is not a good soil and the fertilizer inside the soil is questionable. But it's too late now...we've already used 4 giant bags to fill the bed and containers. We've already spent over $100 to get this garden started. sigh.....

Please advise. Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated.