Okay, so by the time you get to read this summer is officially here! I wrote this on Tuesday and summer will be here Thursday. So ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls let me begin with, summer is here! Woohoo… wait not for Yuma that is. Remember Yuma’s summer is harsh, hot, and dangerous for you beautifully aged person and gorgeous young kids. The heat here is a no-no.

My advice, stay indoors unless you’re one of them heat loving active young people that can’t stay still. Stay hydrated and keep cool, please. Take breaks when need it and don’t show off. Try to stay in shaded areas and go indoor keep car A/C up in your vehicle to keep cool if necessary.

What Summer Vegetables to Grow During this Heat

Check out these vegetables that can grow right in your backyard during this hot Yuma heat, zone 10a. Triple digits are here to stay for a while.

PUMPKINS

This is the time to plant pumpkin for October 31st, jack-o-lantern, Halloween. Use the same technique as planting summer squash. Some would have you plant the seeds on a mound, hill whatever works for you is fine. Mine works without planting them on hills. I plant mine directly into the soil because Yuma is hot from April until the end of September. The ground needs to be warm, pumpkin hates cold so make sure the ground temperature is at least 75°F to 85°F before sowing the pumpkin seeds.

This is my technique, plant 4 pumpkin seeds in one area about a foot apart. I don’t have that much room. It takes about 5 to 10 days for the seeds to germinate. Make a sunsail or some cover the pumpkin because it gets really hot when summer hit this week. Today was 106° F.

Pumpkin is like summer squash where they do not like to be planted near a sprinkler system. They hate getting their leaves wet. Try to water them from along the roots. Watch them grow and see which plant takes off. Weed out the ones that aren’t growing well or if all of them takes off and start budding remove the softball size one for food and thin them to a few pumpkins per vine to mature into jack-o-lanterns.

Remember to look for bee activities. If there aren’t any bees to pollinate your pumpkins, do it yourself, read my hand pollinating here.

MELONS

Melons are always a great fruit to have during the summer along with watermelons and cantaloupe, yum. When sowing these seeds as they like to seed deep at least 4 to 6 inches deep. They also do not like their leaves wet so make sure that you water your melons every other day but do not over water them or else they will get root rot and your melons will die, we don’t want that.

Once you planted your seeds saturate them with water and use mulch for protection.

BEANS

Also, start seeding beans as well. Mix some manure well with the patch of dirt you’re planning on seeding your beans. String beans and other vine beans are about a foot apart, 12 inches. Bush beans seed them 5 inches apart an inch deep. I just seeded some dragon’s tongue beans.

PEAS

Planting these babies are a joy. Mix dirt well with some manure, plant the seeds 1 inch deep and a couple of inches apart. Takes about 7 to 14 days to germinate. Keep watering every other day and watch it grows. Reap the rewards.

You can also plant these in a container of 12inches, bush beans, are one per 12-inch pot and vines could be up to 5 plants per 12-inch pot. Let me know how it went.

PEPPERS

Peppers are heat loving plants. They grow well in hot weather but if it gets too hot it will not survive the summer. I had two Carolina chili peppers died on me because I thought since they love heat they will survive our summer, nope, died. So, make sure to plant them 12 inches apart.

You only need maybe three plants of chili peppers or jalapenos peppers. Make sure to keep moist by mulching, using compost, and cover them in the summer and they will thrive.

CUCUMBERS

Planting cucumber is great to enjoy during the summer. Compost or use manure mix will with soil. Plant couple seeds together in one hole, space them 8 to 10 inches apart, water and then mulch, and water again. Wait for it to sprout and like the rest of the vegetables you planted and keep moist.

Soon you will have sprouts all over. Weed out the weak ones or drying ones and keep the strong ones.

SWEET POTATOES

If you have the place to grow pumpkins and sweet potatoes go for it. I can only grow one at a time. I have a small garden and I am thinking about converting my backyard into my vegetable garden. I have already transplanted my banana trees into my lawn.

I’m making it difficult for my poor husband to mow the lawn. So, yes I started.

Sweet potatoes are fast growing vines. I have not tried it yet on my sandy soil but I did plant one in clay soil at the rental and it just took off. Just like potatoes wait until it starts to sprout and then plant it into the soil. Take three of them and lay them just under the dirt, water them and watch them grow.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to cover them with a sail in the summer heat as well. Must cover all in the summer.

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Here a YouTube video I found to help you with your plants during the summer

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Conclusion

Now, the reason why you want to seed all of these fruit and veggies on mounds is because you can water them thoroughly from the bottom and not wet the leaves. When I plant mine I use my raindrip system to saturate my garden so I wouldn’t need to mound my plants.

They do very well as long as you care for them and water them in the summer. Don’t be afraid to experiment with them. That’s how you learn for next time and what works and doesn’t. If it doesn’t work, then you know the vegetables aren’t likely from your zone.

Make compose organically for your plants, learn to make a compost. Winter along with summer vegetables loves organic compost, they thrive with them.

It will be hard to cover the vines that grows wild but cover the growing root ball up to 5 ft. I would just because it is so hot here.

If you have any comments or ideas that I might not be aware off or educate me on anything please leave them on my comment section and I’ll be sure to follow up with ya.