What's growing in the desert SW?

[ammcmaho]

We finally have a home with some space for gardening!

We plan to avoid monsanto junk, but other than that, I'm wondering who has some good recommendations on what to grow. I'm from Michigan where we have a short growing season but pretty much anything'll grow, etc.

Thanks!

[aspenleaves]

Welcome to AZ.... we have a garden and grow all year round. Turnips, chard, carrots, brocc, cauliflour, onions, kale, lettuce, herbs... in the garden now - October. Where are you?

[prescottchels]

I was just gonna ask where you are, OP as well as you too Aspenleaves
I'm in Prescott and our Broccoli rocked last year, all summer and into the fall.
Other things that did great over the summer:
artichokes
peppers
tomatoes-still, but I tuck them in every night and brought the smaller plants in, planted them in 5 gal buckets and now are doing great in our super sunny living room
basil
lettuces-until the deer came
blue corn-this yr, yellow last yr was a major downer
leeks
mustard greens
rosemary-serious old growth, once it gets established it's like a weed!
Lavender

we've also tried:
eggplant w/limited success
acorn squash which mostly got killed off by squash beetles
edamame-just never got very big, but it did produce a bit
green bush beans also never got full grown, but did give us enough beans for a few servings

We haven't tried outdoor winter gardening here, but are working on some self-watering containers to add to our living room garden of tomatoes and peppers
We're thinking of onions, garlic, carrots, romaine, peas, zucchini, potatoes and/or sweet potatoes grown in stacks of tires lol that'll be interesting! We got the idea from the Urban Homestead book

Anyway, it'd be great to have an AZ gardeners club here in this thread

[ammcmaho]

hi ladies - i'm north phoenix. i picked up stuff to start my compost this week! yay! i have a counter-top compost and just need to have a place to put the stuff now, lol.

i hope to start planting by december, i know that spinach seems to be good to do over the winter, but we shall see!