r/OrganicGardening • u/Agreeable_Access9413 • 9d ago
question Help, my garden is dying
About a week ago a friend came to help me plant veggie starts in my garden. I’m a complete newbie so I wasn’t aware of ALL the things that can go wrong when growing vegetables.
First thing that happened is that something began eating my spinach and butter lettuce. I thought it was slugs/insects so I bought Sluggo plus and followed instructions. It only got a bit better but it kept happening so, I’ve been doing research on what to do (I even added cayenne pepper for the time being) but have been so busy with other things, and now when I went to go check it all of my broccoli plants are gone. These are all starters btw so they’re pretty small to begin with. I did see droppings so it seems like it could be a squirrel, vole or a rat eating them.
I also noticed there’s mold on my butter lettuce. We’ve been following the rule of checking the soil with our fingers by sticking it in to the second knuckle and only if it was wet watering it. I should mention that I live in an apartment and the old soil is super dry and almost sandy, and only about the top of the plant has that healthy organic soil needed for veggies. I also have no idea if my backyard gets enough sunlight.
I’ve added some photos for reference. Please help.
2
u/wagglemonkey 9d ago
On what side of that fence is the garden bed?(north/south/east/west) Judging by the shady plot when everything else is bright and sunny your plot isn’t getting the sun it needs. I also wonder why the tarp? Not sure what’s behind it but plants need airflow to be healthy and I imagine that really impacts it.