I pile up fallen leaves from our tree on my raised beds every year, but I think we have the wrong kind of tree, because the soil is so poor every spring.

Soil is so important... This season is a disaster in my garden. It feels like all I'm doing is picking infected leaves or chasing away pests. Although the garden is doing better than a month ago, it is definitely not okay yet.
Only yesterday I realized all of it might be caused by the soil. So tomorrow I'll be testing the structure and fertilization. A couple of days ago, I found one of my potato plants infected with something that looks like Phytophthora. Several panick attacks and a completely trimmed plant later I found out this (and the other infections that are going around) could be caused by too much or too little nitrogen in the soil. So I'll be spending a day or two checking all raised beds, hoping I can solve the problems by making the soil healthier...