Alright!
This is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
Today I have another exciting episode for you.
You know, I'm here in my limited mobility here in my sling and my other arm is probably
like still 60% usable, 40% nonusable.
I can't like stretch my arm out straight and all this kind of stuff and I can't really
do a lot of stuff, but I'm learning to manage and get by and I figured I'd film another
video for you guys and this one is goanna be pretty easy at that.
What we're going to do today is go over my top 7 plants to grow in the hot summer heat
in the dessert.
So, whether you live in the hot summer heat or somewhere else, these plants will probably
do well for you.
Some of these plants need really good heat to produce well, and any others will just
produce well wherever you are.
So, these are some hardcore plants that can take the extreme heats, and, you know, even
with the not-so-much watering, they're still goanna do great.
So, let's go on a tour of my backyard garden area and share these 7 crops with you.
Check it out, basil.
One of my top picks for growing in the extreme heat in the dessert.
It does really well.
I've got, probably, 7 different kinds of basil in this bed here.
One of my favorites is actually this guy right here.
It's actually a Thai basil.
It looks pretty and also hasn't been bolting like many of my other basils do.
Many people might cut back their basil when it does tend to bolt because they want to
produce more leaves.
I personally don't care.
I like it when it bolts because it attracts the bees.
I can also go here and pick the flowers and eat the basil flowers.
Quite delicious.
You can actually cut off the basil tops and use those in food preparation as well as the
leaves.
It kind of has that basil flavor as well.
As well as, you know, I'm goanna be letting the seeds drop and see if I get basil coming
up randomly in my garden.
Plus, by not cutting the tops off it's less work, especially when you're hurt.
So, my top crop for growing in the heat of the dessert, amazingly enough, is the okra.
These guys are putting out a lot, like they put out okras and okras every single day,
and I love them so much.
You want to remember to harvest them when they're young so they're much more tender
and they're delicious.
I like to actually eat them raw.
Chop them up, I make a fabulous seaweed salad out of them, which I may have in a future
episode, but the okras have done amazingly well here.
Even with little water, they produce good.
You know, I haven't been able to grow okra this well before in California with a milder
climate, but the extreme heat, these guys really put out.
Besides okra, let's take a look at another crop that's done quite well for me, here in
the dessert.
So, the next crop that does well here in the dessert is solanance family crops.
So, solanance family includes things like tomatoes and peppers, and also the eggplant.
Now, while I don't necessarily encourage growing tomatoes, cause tomatoes don't really take
the heat to well, and peppers do a little better, the eggplants do the best.
Check this out.
This guy right here is just loaded up with eggplants and I got different kinds of eggplants.
I mean, every place we look, there's just eggplants ripening up, waiting to be eaten.
I got these purple ones, I got some white ones, and I even got some really funny heirloom
orange ones that are really cool.
I just can't, you know, turn down growing eggplants, 'cause they do so well even though
they're not particularly one of my favorite fruits, I will turn these guys into eggplant
bacon one of these days.
Next, let's talk about the leafy greens.
Leafy greens are one of the most important foods I think everybody should be including
in their diet each and every day.
After all, my channel is called growingyourgreens.
So, yes, even in the middle of the dessert in 100 degree days, I'm growing my greens,
and one of the ones I'm proud to let you guys know works really well: the dinosaur kale
or lochtesino kale, loctinato kale, whatever you want to call it, black kale, Tuscan kale,
there's so many different words for it.
I mean, literally if you go down to the local organic produce shop, like whole foods, I
like to call them whole paycheck, you know, they'll charge you $3 for literally 6 leaves,
but look at this.
The leaves are growing so amazingly now in the middle of the summer.
Earlier in the season, what happened was these guys were hit bad with aphids, but we controlled
the aphids, and now these guys are growing really well.
Super well actually.
I can't necessarily recommend growing red Russian kale, while is my other usually summer
kale to grow.
Actually, it hasn't done quite well this summer, but the dinosaur kale has done really good
and tastes oh so good as well.
So, another leafy green you can grow quite successfully in the dessert, right here.
It's called ruberaw spinach.
That's what it was called actually anyways when it went to Houston.
I like to call it red Malabar spinach.
It's a nice succulent leaf.
It's a tropical.
It'll grow great in tropical places like south Florida, Hawaii as well.
Man, I like these guys.
These are some little seedlings I've started, and they're doing quire well.
They're soon to be transplanted out.
Now, these guys are viners, so you want to give them a nice trellis to climb up, and
man they're goanna put on a lot of leaves for you guys to eat.
So, my other favorite leafy green to grow: Swiss chard.
The Swiss chards are definitely good, and they grow right through the summer.
Middle of the heat, they do fine, actually.
I like the chard because literally you could plant them in the springtime and they'll last
all the way through to the next spring.
I mean, it happens every year here.
It happens for me in California as well, and you can't go wrong with some Swiss chard,
and I especially love the nice saltiness flavor of the stalks.
Of course, my last leafy green vegetables to grow in the dessert in the summertime in
the heat has got to be purple perennial tree collards.
These guys, you know, if I lift this guy up straight, towers over me, man.
This guys probably like 8 feet tall now.
I mean, right through the summer it grows well.
You got to remember to water it enough.
If you underwater, the leaves are goanna grow really small, if you give it more water, then
the leaves are goanna grow big and it's goanna grow more lush.
It does like to stay wet, and if you water it, you're goanna be rewarded with a lot of
nice delicious leaves.
Now, they do get a bit spicier and hotter in the summertime, so I tend to eat them but
not as much as in the wintertime, when the sweetness really comes out.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this quick episode.
Once again, my name is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
We'll see you next time and remember; keep on growing.
(Next episode preview) aright this is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
Today I have another exciting episode for you.
This is going to be a fun one at that.
As you guys can see, I'm still recovering from my broken arm here, and you know-