6 Reasons Why Your Vegetable Garden is Struggling

My garden in the middle of August – the height of the season!

During the height of the vegetable garden season your plants should be big and lush, the fruit and veggies abundant, and the flowers bursting with color.

This means the whole ecosystem of your garden is functioning at optimum health to provide you with the large harvests that make growing your own food so worth it!

But what if your garden, or individual plants, looks terrible? What should you do?

It’s time to look into what the cause might be. Soil problems? Not enough sun? Wrong variety for your climate?

In this article we’ll dig into some ways you can diagnose what’s happening when your garden is performing up to your expectations.

But, first, you should know you’re not alone. This has happened to me. At two different houses. Even after ordering new soil and installing new raised beds.

Here’s the quick version of the story:

When we purchased our current house a few years ago at the beginning of June we immediately installed four raised beds as a quick first phase of our new front yard garden.

I was nursing a bunch of seedlings along all spring, so the plants were pretty yellow when I planted them in the garden. Usually, when I plant a sad looking seedling, within a few weeks it bounces back with new growth that’s dark green and healthy.

Four weeks later, the plants had grown very little and still looked stressed out. I immediately went through the most common factors that affect plant growth and tried to diagnose what was happening.

I’ll lead you through them below.

6 Reasons Why Your Vegetable Garden Could Be Struggling

Generally, when there are problems with your plants – they’re yellow, they’re not growing, they’re not producing food – you’ll want to look at several different things to see if one or two of them are causing the issues.

#1: Sun

Is your garden getting enough hours of sunlight? Vegetables do best in full sun – eight or more hours per day. If your vegetables aren’t growing to full size or producing as much as you think they should, lack of sun might be the reason.

If you can relocate your garden into a full sun area of your yard that’s the best option. If not, focus on growing vegetables that need less sunlight.

The warm weather vegetables like tomatoes, melons, peppers, and eggplant prefer as much sun as possible (unless you live in a very hot climate). Those might not be the best choice for a partly shady garden.

Instead, plant root vegetables like carrots and beets, and leafy vegetables like spinach, salad mix, cilantro, and kale.

My garden is in full sun, so I knew this wasn’t the problem.

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#2: Soil

Sun and soil are the two most important factors in your garden’s success. If you have enough sun to grow the vegetables you’ve planted in your garden, then lack of soil nutrients is the next likely cause of some of your problems.

In general, I’ve found that most gardeners benefit from adding an organic garden fertilizer to their gardens every time they plant. Even if you’ve ordered soil and installed a new garden it’s likely the soil isn’t as healthy as it should be.

You should purchase fertilizer at a local garden center or online and apply it to your garden to see if it makes a difference.

I’ve written a whole post (with a video!) on which kind of organic garden fertilizer to buy and how to apply it when planting seeds and plants. 

You can also learn more ways to build the best soil for a vegetable garden.

Missing nutrients causing soil problems was the culprit I suspected in my garden. More about my solution in a minute…

#3: Weather

Certain weather patterns in your area can cause vegetable plants to act in strange ways. For example, cool nighttime temps below 60 degrees F and hot daytime temps above 85 degrees can cause tomato and pepper plants to drop their flowers. If that weather continues around the time these plants are usually flowering and setting fruit you may get less than expected.

If you’ve been having hot and dry weather and haven’t had any rain recently, some of your plants might be stressed. Make sure your plants are getting at least one inch of water per week, more if you have sandy soil.

Mulching your soil is highly recommended because it traps in moisture and helps regulate soil temperatures.

Read all about the Watering Your Vegetable Garden the Right Way

And discover why Mulch is the Ultimate Garden Tool.

The weather in Madison was pretty average for that time of year, so I didn’t think weather was the problem.

#4: Variety

What variety of each vegetable you choose to grow very much matters. Choosing a variety that grows well in your climate is a very important factor in having a healthy and productive garden.  If you’ve been growing the same variety year after year and have never had much success with that particular crop, it might be time to try a new one.

I’ve trialed a lot of different varieties in my garden over the years and they have varied quite a bit in performance, yield, and plant health.  Talk to local farmers at the market, or other gardeners in your community, to see which vegetable varieties people are having success with. (Read more about where to buy vegetable plants.)

The varieties I was growing in my garden were all tried and true ones that I’ve grown for many years. They had performed much better in the past, so I knew variety wasn’t the issue this time around.

#5: Water

If your garden is in a boggy area where the soil stays water-logged or you’re watering too much (as in every day) you may have inhospitable conditions in your garden. Most vegetable crops like to dry out a bit between waterings, and some vegetables like tomatoes and squash don’t like to be soggy.

It’s best to water your vegetables at the root of the plant. You shouldn’t be spraying your whole garden with a sprinkler every day because this could worsen disease issues on squashes and tomatoes.

Read all about how to water the right way here.

In the previous two weeks, my rain gauge had recorded about a foot of rain. That’s way too much water! We installed this new garden right on top of the grass so the drainage probably wasn’t as good as a more established garden.

Do the plants have wet feet? The soil in the bed didn’t seem waterlogged, but it was possible.

#6: Insects & Disease

Especially during the summer gardening season, insect and disease pressure is extremely high. If there’s a particular vegetable in your garden that’s not doing well, say all of the cucumbers are wilting or the kale has tons of holes in it, the poor performance could be from an insect or a disease.

The best way to find out is to spend a little time reading about the vegetable plant. Google “cucumber pests” or “cucumber diseases” and learn about the symptoms of disease, which insects attack those plants, what they look like, and what to do about them.

I don’t recommend spraying chemicals in your garden. I personally have thousands of bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and other beneficial insects in my garden. Chemicals will kill everything – harmful and beneficial insects alike. In order to have a healthy garden ecosystem you need a wide variety of insects living in and around your garden.

In my Masterclass, Success in Every Season, I have an entire section devoted to insect and disease. I walk you through the different families of vegetables plants, discuss the most common pests and diseases that attack them, and give you options for protecting your plants. Check it out here.

The Verdict & Solution

After running through all of these possible causes in my head, I decided that my garden issues were most likely being caused by soil problems. I had a lack of fertility at my last house, and many of the symptoms were the same.

I just happened to be reading The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient Dense Food which focuses on how to build soil fertility to grow food with the most amount of nutrients, so I was already thinking about my overall soil health.

In the book, the author gives a recipe for a Complete Organic Fertilizer you can mix up for your own garden. I decided to quickly gather the ingredients and create a batch. I spread a handful around each plant and gently dug it into the soil with my fingers.

At the same time, I also decided to send a soil sample away to the lab he recommends in the book to help me assess my soil and formulate a more long-term plan.

I walk you through exactly what you need to know about soil npk tests for gardeners.

I also contacted the local company I ordered the soil from and shared the problems I was experiencing and told them I thought the soil they sold me had nutrient issues. They sent a staff person to collect a soil sample and sent it to their own lab.

Within a week of spreading the organic garden fertilizer around my plants, they perked up, turned a deep green, and started growing. It was amazing to watch and confirmed my suspicion that soil problems were the cause of my stunted plants.

Moving Forward with Soil Problems

If you suspect you have soil nutrient deficiencies, your first step should be to purchase an organic garden fertilizer and apply it to your whole garden. If that doesn’t improve things, then you may need to take the longer road of sending a soil sample away for a more complete analysis.

Soil issues won’t be corrected with one application of fertilizer. It may take several years or more to bring your soil into balance.

That’s why I recommend adding organic garden fertilizer to your garden beds every time you plant seeds or seedlings.

Since I wrote this article I’ve been retesting my soil every year and it’s slowly improving. I continue to add my own custom mix to my garden beds several times a season and my plants have thanked me for it!

Soil problems are no joke! Lack of nutrients can really affect your garden in negative ways.

It’s worth it to tackle this issue because when you do you’ll be rewarded with lush and healthy plants that yield more fruits and vegetables for you to cook and serve to your family. Healthy plants are also able to fend off pests and disease more effectively.

Don’t be intimidated by the subject of soil fertility. Do some experiments in your own garden and see if you can drastically improve the vigor of your plants in the coming seasons.

Additional Resources for Creating a Successful Garden

I’m all about supporting you in getting the most bang for your buck from all of the work you put into your garden. IMHO the more food you get to harvest from your garden the more fun gardening is!

That’s why my whole mission is just that – to help you get the most from your garden.

Dive into all of the resources I’ve created to jumpstart your learning and let me lead you through skipping over the most common mistakes I see gardeners making. There are plenty of advanced mistakes to be made!

MASTERCLASS

if you want some help, you can sign up for my Masterclass, Success in Every Season, where I have an entire module on building healthy soil and you can also reach out to me for personal support by leaving questions in the classroom. Find out more here.

GARDEN COACHING

Get personalized advice on your struggles, goals, and garden aspirations with a garden coaching session, either in person or virtual. Read more about them here. 

BOOKS

Set yourself up for a successful season with the Smart Start Garden Planner. It keeps garden planning practical, down-to-earth, and fun!

Get a sample of the book so you can peek inside here.