09/24/2025
Here’s some photos from my garden this morning of all the things that survived the summer! Here is a rundown of what worked and the failures of the summer:
What worked:
👍🏻 Sunflowers - I planted autumn beauties and they bloomed throughout the summer, some growing 12 feet tall! Even now I have some left and new ones sprouting from dropped seeds.
👍🏻 Basil - planted mainly on the north side, these exploded even in the hottest months.
👍🏻 Luffa - grew and grew all summer and just recently fruiting. It did not mind the heat!
👍🏻 Tepary beans - these were hit and miss, some survived and are now thriving but others died.
👍🏻 Growing sunflower and vining plants together - the sunflower stalks are dead but provide a trellis for the luffa and beans!
👍🏻 Planting squash at the end of summer - so far so good. This worked for me last year and I got spring pumpkins! Better than no pumpkins I say.
Failures!
👎🏻 Growing in pots - nothing at all survived in a pot
👎🏻 Corn - I got a lot of stalks but no corn developed. Might have been the variety I chose.
👎🏻 Pumpkins and squash planted late spring/early summer - these were riddled with squash bugs early on and I could not defeat them. Any type of squash I planted had to be pulled.
So excited to be planting cool weather crops at last!! Doesn’t Arizona fall seem more like spring to us gardeners since everything seems to come alive at this time? 🌸🪴
