Saturday, January 26, 2008

Herbs & Vegetables for the High Desert

One would think that herbs might grow here, given that many of them are of mediteranean descent. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many standard garden vegetables also will grow here - although some do better than others.

Last year's garden consisted of 3 raised beds, 4 ft x 8 ft. Here's a list of things that I've had success with in 2007. This year I hope to expand that by 3 more beds - especially since half of Bed #1 is devoted to Bearded Irises, half of Bed #2 is in planted in strawberries, and all of Bed #3 is filled with sleeping garlic at the moment.
Herbs:
  • Basils
  • Lemon Balm
  • Rosemary
  • Garlic
  • Oregano
  • Sweet Marjoram

Vegetables:

  • Tomatoes
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Yellow Wax Bush Beans
  • Black Eye Peas
  • Zucchini
  • Yellow Squash

Flowers:

  • Sunflowers
  • Bearded Irises
  • Desert Mallow

1 comment:

Jenn said...

I was told that tomatoes don't set fruit here in summer because the high temps (we can go weeks at temps over 100, day and night) kill the pollen, so no pollination, no fruit.

I'm glad you found my blog. It's good to have another desert dweller to compare notes with.

I am so out of tune with my seasons here - I should have started tomatoes in December, to set out in late January. It's so weird to be so out of sync with what what we used to call 'normal'.