Desert Gardening: Grow Vegetables in a Hot, Dry Climate

Looking to start a vegetable garden in a hot, dry climate? This in-depth guide to desert gardening
will show you how to successfully grow vegetables year-round, even in extreme heat! Learn the best crops for each season, from spring to fall, along with soil preparation tips, efficient watering techniques, and how to protect your garden from pests. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned gardener, you'll discover practical strategies for thriving in desert conditions. Perfect for those in areas like Arizona, Nevada, and California who want to grow their own food in the desert.

00:00 Introduction
00:48 Understand the Growing Seasons
8:00 Tip 2 Choose the Right Crop for Each Season
11:18 Tip 3 Focus on Your Soil
12:57 Tip 4 Water Efficiently & Effectively
14:23 Tip 5 Understand & Create Microclimates
16:08 Tip 6 Managing Pests
18:38 Tip 7 Learn from Your Experience & Others

Key Topics Covered:
Understanding desert growing seasons (Spring, Summer, Monsoon, Fall/Winter)
Best vegetables to grow in hot, dry climates
Soil preparation tips for sandy and alkaline desert soil
Efficient watering techniques using drip irrigation and mulch
Creating microclimates for plant protection
Natural pest control and companion planting
Get ready to turn your desert yard into a productive vegetable garden, no matter how hot or dry it gets!

#DesertGardening #VegetableGarden #GardeningTips #DryClimateGardening #GrowYourOwnFood #ArizonaGardening #WaterSavingGarden #SustainableGardening

Using these links helps support Growing in the Garden and allows me to continue making videos. Thank you for your support!

[rickf.]

Being local to you, I so appreciate your videos and your planting guides. Great job on the new website, it's awesome! Thank you so much Angela!

[Nikki_Abundantly]

I’m in Arizona and I’d love to begin a vegetable garden in 2025 so your channel is a blessing to me.

[LesleyLizbeth]

What a wonderful video! I always brag about you and how your YouTube channel has blessed me so much!

[joanrusche]

I’m east of Sacramento in Zone 9b. We hit 114°F this summer, and my tomatoes stopped producing. Thank you for creating this encouraging and educational video.

[tabithasherie]

I’m in S.Texas zone 9a, you’re so right, growing zones just give you a snippet of info. After June the garden is pretty much done here. We’ve been in a drought for the last 4 years only getting 10 inches of rain last year, city water is expensive plus the city fines residents for overuse. Your video encourages me to really evaluate my environment, planting accordingly to those of us in dry hot extremes. Just wanted add our natives that lay dormant in the heat such as the asters, echinaceas, petunias, frost weed and solidago bloom beautifully right now helping the migrating pollinators passing through Texas 😊

[catmccracken]

I live in Las Vegas. Your channel has been very helpful.

[cowboys]

Thank you!
I live in Buckeye AZ and saved this video to review annually.
ALWAYS learning from your videos.😊

[hobbygardeninthewoods]

Crazy how different this is compared to where I live! So fun to see how gardening works in other places.

[Gracerollandmusic]

This is the best video ever; thank you for all your work and guidance, Angela! Finally beginning to 'break ground' and garden with my toddler son. It keeps us bonding outdoors, and your videos, website, PG and book are a daily resource for my personal education and growth. Thanks!

[danschiro]

This is absolutely one of the best videos I have seen! Although technically not a desert where I live, we face the same challenges here in Lake Elsinore, CA as you do in Arizona. But on the flip side, there is always something to harvest every month of the year.

Again, an excellent video for anyone who lives in a hot, dry climate!

[DesertLevelUp]

We just bought shade cloth for next year. This is my first year gardening and my spring was beautiful, but summer definitely taught me a thing or two 😭 I feel a little more prepared for fall. I have pumpkins that survived, sweet potatoes, and a young pomegranate and lemon tree that keep me sane.

[Thee_Sinner]

Im so glad i finally found a channel that has similar heat struggles as me. Everything you’ve described for your seasons, aside from the monsoons, sounds exactly like what I deal with at the north side of the California valley. This will be my 4th year trying to keep a garden and if been so difficult every year because of the heat.

[MGrace-]

We’re in Buckeye, AZ west of Phoenix. This summer has been such a challenge! Your guides and book have been a lifesaver for this novice. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us!

[SuperMbprincess]

So thankful for your channel!! I feel like there are so few resources for Arizona gardeners

[scribejoy]

Fantastic information. Took one summer in the low desert in southern California to realize full sun does not apply.

[lnaesll]

I’m in Las Vegas and really just getting into this. Thank you for such clear instructions. This has been very helpful.

[joydavis]

Ty for this wonderful video. I just got my hands on some itoi onions. 😁 ❤

[JWDicus]

Thanks for another super helpful video! I am just up the hill from Phoenix in Black Canyon City, at about 2, 000 feet elevation, and your garden tips and timing almost always works well for us here too. This year, we successfully avoided corn ear worms by timing our sweet corn to harvest both before and after the flight of the moth that lays the eggs that turn into earworms. We sowed sweet corn in March and August this year, and enjoyed 2 amazing harvests of sweet corn, in late May and just now in early October. Taking your advice and learning about our local pest species gave us the knowledge to avoid it's flight period entirely. No more chewed ears of sweet corn! I love it!

[snowballsmom]

I am happy to have come across this video. It just showed up on my feed. I wish I would’ve come across this years ago. This is a wealth of information. Thank you!

[magicalhealerclairvoyant]

Love this video and look forward to another class in the Valley. Going to pick up a guide to encourage my daughter.
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