Seasoned gardener makes a rookie mistake.

I've been gardening for many years. Organic for 7 or 8 years. I discovered Permies about 5 years ago, and with all that under my belt I still made a very basic mistake this year.  
My garden this year just hasn't been productive. Everything looks healthy, but with the exception of the squash and zucchini nothing is really doing anything. Unfortunately it took me 3/4 of the summer to figure out I have been over watering.  
Last year I  more than doubled the garden size. I added 2 hugel beets.  The raised beds I added were filled hugel beet style.  Last year until a gopher came it was hands down the best most amazing garden I have ever had.  I watered almost every day.  I had it in my mind that's why it was my best. So dumb of me.  Last years garden were new hugel beet so needed lots of water. This year it's starting to work the way it's supposed to, and doesn't need nearly as much water.  So after searching and reading and trying to figure out why I figured out to much water. Not enough to kill the veggies, but to much to produce.  I started backing off and I'm now watering about once every 4 or 5 days.  I'm already seeing a difference.  I've only gotten 1 cucumber on one of my plants this summer, today I counted 5.  The melons are finally getting flowers.  There's still time thank goodness to get something out of the garden.  
Being a gardener is for ever learning and evolving.

Jen,

Don’t feel too bad.  I have been gardening for about the same length as you, and organic gardening even longer.  But my gardens turned out terribly this year for a very simple reason:  I didn’t stay on top of weeding!

Things started out a bit rough as it was a hot and very dry start to the summer, so much so that I had to water for the first time in years.  My daughter had dumped a bunch of her rabbit bedding in my garden bed and it was loaded with Timothy seed.  This grew much better than my tomatoes.  I was keeping the Timothy somewhat under control until we left for 5 days for a short vacation.  When I got back the grass and weeds had leapt over my veggies and the garden was basically gone.

So I labored hard in the heat to loose the garden in 5 days of neglect.

BTW, any suggestions on how to smother our established grasses.  I am afraid that I can’t realistically pile on enough mulch to permanently smother it out.  Lay down cardboard?  A smother crop?  I am totally open to suggestions.

Hang in there,

Eric

Oh man Eric I'm so sorry.  When this like this happens it's so disheartening.  If the garden is a done deal for this summer could you lay black plastic over it? Will you get more hot days?
Grasses are tough. When I redid my garden last year I removed the weed cloth I had down in the pathway, and under it were a mat of Johnson grass and Bermuda grass roots.  In my rose garden path I pulled out as much of both grasses and other weeds as I could. Put down a layer of cardboard and about 4" to 6" of wood chips. I didn't get new wood chips on this year, and it looks like I never weeded it before.
I wonder if you used vinegar if it would kill the soil life in the soil?  Once the grass was killed out, I don't know what would have to be done to help the soil be healthy and growable after.   Sorry more questions than answers.  I hope you find a solution.  Good luck

Thanks Jen,

My beds are made from wood chips that are heavily decomposed by Wine Cap mushrooms.  The reason I mention this is that I have a lot of biology going on in my garden bedding and I am hesitant to really knock it back.  As an idea I was thinking about cutting down the grasses and planting buckwheat as a smother crop.  Alternatively I could just put down cardboard and add new chips.  I am not certain which direction to go so I love the feedback.

Eric

I'm the complete opposite in Florida. Scorching sun dries out the tops of the beds immediately, so the water, since I water by hand, rarely gets deep enough.

From now on I am starting all my plants directly in the sun, in pots. I decided today to cut my losses and transferred about 10 pepper plants that would wilt heavily midday back to soggy pots and they absolutely love it. Not sure when I will transplant them back, a couple months at least I think, to let them roots fill out.

Eric I don't know what grasses your dealing with.  I have found if I keep pulling up Johnson grass eventually I can kill it.  If its Bermuda grass,. No clue that stuff seems indestructible.  I know there's lots of other nasty grasses, but I'm not familiar with them.  I hope you find a solution, keep us posted. I'm always interested in a good way to keep weeds out of the garden.

No problem Jen.  Mostly I am dealing with Timothy as my daughter dumped out her rabbit litter into the bed and the seeds took hold with a vengeance.  If you could control Johnson grass by pulling, I congratulate you.  I find Johnson grass to be one of the most pernicious weeds out there.

Eric