You need to work lots of compost and other organic matter into the soil to loosen it up so the plant's roots can penetrate and get the nutrients they need. Don't know if that's the source of the yellowing. Do you have a picture?

As others have suggested, amending the soil would be a good idea.

You may have to buy plants this year, but next year, perhaps you could start your tomato seeds indoors. That is what most people do, in order to have plants that are big enough to go outside after all danger of frost has gone.

Good luck!

Linda

thanks for the suggestions I will look up more information on compost and learn how to do that. here is a pic of the zucchini. I'm in northwest il so hot summer and cold winters. the soil seems to be more clay than rocky or sandy. not sure if this helps at all. we have had high temps and lots of rain lately

oh also the raised beds were here when we moved in so I figured I would use them. thanks for sharing that I can enhance the soil rather than just buying top soil. again super new and trying to get better so I appreciate it

The yellow leaves are telling you that they need more nitrogen. Vegetable fertilizer or composted manure will help. You don't have to disturb the soil and your plants' roots but sprinkle it on top and water it in. Later, when your plants are done growing and are ready to be pulled out, you can work an amendment into the top few inches.

Putting straw or pine needles on top as a mulch will keep the top of the soil from drying out.

As noted above, "hard and dry even after watering" translates to poor soil structure, maybe hard clay. Where the water mostly just runs off. Not much to do this year, but at the end of the year, dig in LOTS of compost. You've got plenty of "top soil." You need organic matter. Note that organic matter in soil gradually disappears, so those raised beds may, someday, have actually been high quality soil. They aren't now. To make a bad story worse, in that kind of hard organic-poor soil, direct seeding is especially difficult. The seedlings have to push their way up through a hard surface, and those that make it are likely stressed.

You say you're using MG. If at the recommended rate, you probably have plenty of nutrients, including nitrogen.

You write you have lots of rain lately. Is the rain water sinking into the ground or staying on the surface of the soil for a prolonged period of time? I am trying to find out here if you have a drainage problem that could, to some degree, justify building raised beds.

As for organic materials it is not only compost you can use. Mulching with grass clippings, straw, leaves, wood chips etc. for the summer keeps the soil moist and cool and provides food and shelter for the soil organisms. It is the soil organisms that make your soil fertile. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/health/biology/?cid=nrcs142p2_053868

http://pnwsteep.wsu.edu/DirectSeed/conf2k2/dscclapperton.htm

You can incorporate the amendments into the soil before winter.

BTY In hot summer climates raised beds are generally especially bad idea, the soil gets too hot in them for both plants and the soil organisms and dries up much too quickly after watering. There are exceptions though where raised beds are the only solution, like when the natural soil being contaminated or waterlogged.

So I dont think I have a drainage issue the water doesnt stay on the surface for long. thinking the raised beds I inherited with the house aren't the best idea. next yr I will make sure they are at ground level. thanks so much for all the suggestions!

Raised beds with quality soil amended with compost and mulched well do not pose any problem in hot summer climates. My raised beds retain moisture very well as well as drain excess rain well here in the heartland where temperatures in excess of 90 degrees is the norm in July and August. Mulch keeps the soil cool. Worms will stay in the top few inches of the soil all summer long and plants grow great.

In the meantime, Sam, as a minimum sow green manure plants in the area of your future garden.

Here is comprehensive info on green manures: https://www.pivotandgrow.com/resources/production/green-manures/module-1-choosing-a-green-manure/

If you are serious about growing healthy plants in a healthy environment you should find the article very interesting.

If you start a new bed or decide to rejuvenate the existing beds after the season is over, I've had good luck using the lasagna gardening method, similar to sheet composting and then in the spring topping the bed with composted manure. I use a liquid fertilizer solution of fish/kelp when I transplant seedlings and then to use it to help a plant that looks needy. I think a good sign of healthy soil is lots of earth worms.

Are the leaves on the squash that are yellowing just the rounded ones at the bottom? I often have the first set of rounded baby leaves yellow off on my squash plants. Sorry if that sounds dumb, but I kind of can't tell if it's just your baby leaves yellowing or if it's more of the mature leaves too.

And when you say you planted tomato and pepper, do you mean seed at the same time you put in your squash seed?