Sounds like you are still missing enough sun, water, or fertilizer for the plants to grow well. In my opinion, the number of different composts used is irrelevant.

EG

I thought you weren't supposed to fertilize with Mel's mix?

I used Miracle Grow on my plants every 2 weeks. Nothing else. From my personal experience, my plants didn't grow very rapidly - until the outside temperature was consistently warm, and the Miracle Grow was added. Then, it quickly turned into a jungle of growth. Hope this helps.

EG

Thanks EG. I'm in Las Vegas and this is my first sfg. I have plenty of sunshine.(ha ha) For some reason, I think of this garden differently than the garden in regular dirt. I'll start using the miracle grow today. Thanks again.
Kath

Hey Kath. Welcome. Can I ask a couple of questions? When did you plant? Did you transplant? Or direct sow? How much sunshine does the garden get? Yikes! I wouldn't want to be out in that las vegas sun all day, lol. Is it possible that some of your plants could need a bit of shade during the daylight hours? Do you have a drip water type thing going on? I only have one kind of compost in mine, lol, mushroom for now. Already started warning the neighbors I'll be swiping their leaves: they seem overjoyed. I use miracle grow on the tomatoes, also. I haven't needed any on the other plants (crossing fingers).

I use a slow release fertilizer in my beds, one of those like Osmocote that lasts 4-6 months. I apply it when I plant and then forget about fertilizing for the rest of the season. Of course, if you are an organic gardener this wouldn't work for you. I'm a lazy gardener ;-)

BTW, I am not far from you when I'm in AZ, and I have also had problems getting my greens garden to grow. I have mixed greens planted in large pots of Miracle Grow soil. They sprout just fine, but get 1-2 inches tall and just stop growing. I have some in sun, some in part shade, diligent about watering. I'm taking a bucket of good compost down with me next month, and I'm trying again.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Hi all, thanks for the additional input. We garden all year long here and I started a sfg just this July. I directly sewed the seeds, but the soil seems so light that the plants don't seem secure. I do have to provide some shade from about noon to 3 or 4 o'clock. I hand water, either with a bucket or hose. I too gave up on planting greens in the sfg and started over in pots. One example is parsley. Plants just aren't growing; I moved one into the tomato pot with sfg soil. It compacted some, better than the other bed but won't grow. My other garden I always added compost, manure, bone meal, etc. The idea of not fertilizing sounded so good! oh well. This is our great growing season because of weather and no bugs this time of year. This forum has helped so much. Thanks again. Kath