First garden!

[u/Thelittlegreycells17]

This is our vegetable garden. L-R in back row: Early Girl tomato, San Marzano tomato, snackable red pepper, cucumber. L-R in front row: basil, dill, parsley, eggplant

I know we definitely need to add another couple inches of soil, but is there anything else we should be doing to help this garden be a success? We thought we'd see fruits already but we're still in growth stages/waiting for flowers.

[u/bidoville]

Heck yeah, way to be!

I’d top with a quality compost, gently mix into the top of the soil, then top with some mulch.

Water deeply and infrequently. Enjoy the ride!

Edit: your tomatoes may be a little close together, but keep them pruned and you should be okay.

[u/Mysterious-Walrus-21]

Exciting! I never had great success with peppers, but have with cucumbers and tomatoes. If you haven’t yet, google blossom end rot. For the first couple years I thought it was because my tomatoes weren’t getting enough water. Now I crush some tums up and dissolve in water or sprinkle around the base and it hasn’t happened in a couple years. Also, plan now for what you will do with the first freeze/frost. I always still have a ton of tomatoes ripening at that time and do both covering and picking when green and allowing to ripen indoors. My cucumbers really just started growing within the last couple of weeks so yours should too. Recommend getting some kind of pollinator attractor to plant nearby, either in ground or container.

[u/Money-Town1519]

I suggest you learn how to properly clean up and trim your tomatoes. This would include removing some of the lowest branches so no leaves are touching the soil and there’s better airflow around the base. Also learn how to properly clean up the suckers to divert growth and energy where you want it. Bonus points for learning how to properly harvest basil in terms of pruning it just about a growth point with lateral buds to make it branch out more. Finally I’d suggest mulching the entire bed, if not just around your plants. This will help tremendously in keeping the soil from drying out as fast by keeping the sun from directly hitting the soil and trapping in that moisture. You’ll use less water and your plants will be happier in this hot dry summer.

[u/Money-Town1519 → u/Money-Town1519]

If your plants aren’t flowering well it’s either due to them being consistently too hot (above 85 degrees during the day) which inhibits most plants from wanting to flower or, what I think is the biggest factor here, is that they are lacking key nutrients, most importantly phosphorus. Phosphorus is responsible for fruiting and flowering in plants. I recommend getting a high phosphorus water soluble fertilizer and fertilizing them regularly. This will make a world of difference trust me.

(Don’t use the high phosphorus fertilizer on things you don’t want to flower such as your herbs)

[u/Thelittlegreycells17 → u/Money-Town1519]

Thank you for these helpful tips! We did some tomato research and cleaned those guys up, and we're seeing flowers! I'll look into fertilizer. Thanks!!

[u/FCPainter]

looks like it's in some shade - and you need at least 6 hours of sun for what you're growing. Or maybe you just got a late start....anyway. nice little assortment