My Phoenix Garden: Plantings for Summer
Here are this season’s newest transplants. As usual, they come from Vilardi Gardens, my favorite local grower known for unique and heirloom varieties and Arizona-adapted edibles that can handle our desert conditions and summer heat.
Armenian cucumber
Sometimes called snake melon, serpent cucumber, or yard-long cucumber, it’s technically a melon, but the fruits are long and, depending on variety, striped or light or dark green, with a thin skin. They’re crisp, mild, and slightly sweet.
Red Burgundy okra
Okra is one of my favorite summer harvests. The pods are a deep red when young, and the flowers are large and pale yellow, similar to hibiscus blooms. Harvest early when the younger pods are tender and easy to cook.
Hibiscus sabdariffa (roselle)
Hibiscus sabdariffa is grown not for its flowers, but for the red calyces that form after blooming (see my photos here from a prior year). These are what’s used to make hibiscus tea, syrups, and jams. In the past, my roselle plants have grown to be about three to four feet wide, so leave plenty of room,
Tigger melon
The Tigger melon is a small heirloom melon with bright yellow skin and jagged orange striping. The flavor is lightly sweet and aromatic — somewhere between a cantaloupe and a honeydew.
Nufar sweet basil
Nufar produces classic sweet basil leaves with strong aroma and flavor, and is a hybrid variety of Genovese basil bred to be resistant to Fusarium wilt.
Amethyst basil
This purple basil variety holds its color best when planted in spot that gets afternsoon shade, or shade protection from harsh sun exposure in primetime heat.
Malabar spinach
It’s also known as Ceylon spinach, Indian spinach, and rau mồng tơi in Vietnamese. Unlike traditional spinach, which bolts quickly in heat, Malabar spinach is a tropical, vining plant that thrives in warm weather. The thick, glossy leaves are good in in stir-fries, soups, and sautés. Given something to climb, it grows vigorously and provides a steady supply of greens.
Holy green basil
Holy green basil, also known as tulsi or Lakshmi tulsi, is the traditional herb used in Thai cooking for pad krapow (stir-fried holy basil), though it’s commonly replaced in the U.S. with Thai basil (horapha) because that’s easier to source. It also comes in a purple-leaf variety known as Krishna tulsi (or purple/red tulsi).
Ping Tung eggplant
Also known as Taiwan long eggplant or Asian eggplant, it should keep setting fruit through the summer. The plants handle full sun well, but consistent deep watering will prevent blossom drop during extreme heat spikes. The fruits are long and slender with glossy, thin, lavender-purple skin, which can reach a foot in length.
Caper bush
Capers (Capparis spinosa) thrive in hot, dry conditions and are native to the Mediterranean, where they grow out of rocky cliffs and arid hillsides.The unopened flower buds are what you find jarred and sold as capers in stores. Its leaves and berries/seed pods can also be pickled and and brined. In the garden, it grows more like a trailing, drought-hardy shrub than an upright plant.
Caper berries on my caper plant