Even though many people associate Arizona with desert regions with temperatures that go beyond a range of 104 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit.
While this isn’t ideal for vegetables, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to grow your own vegetable garden in Arizona.
So, if you’re looking for some vegetables that grow great in the Arizona sun, keep reading this article for our list of fourteen different vegetables and fruit vegetables that you can grow in full sunlight.
So, keep reading this article to find the best vegetables and fruit vegetables that you can grow in Arizona with ease.
Methods That Will Help Your Vegetable Garden Grow
There are a variety of tips and tricks to help you grow a vegetable garden successfully in Arizona.
Even if Arizona has a hot climate, there’s no reason that you can’t maintain your own garden with the right tools and seeds.
Make sure that you plant any fruit and vegetables that will mature sooner rather than later.
Many of the fruits and vegetables on this list grow at a faster rate. By growing at a faster rate, you can ensure that they are safe from scorching in the sun.
One way to ensure they grow safely is by providing shade for your fruits and vegetables with different vine plants and herbs.
In this article, we’ve recommended sunflower and basil to shade your vegetables so they can reach maturity in time.
Due to the boiling temperature, you may believe that the soil is too dry.
You should always water your plants regularly so that you can make sure they remain hydrated.
When you plant them, remember to use compost as a fertilizer.
By composting, you’ll know that the seeds will thrive with the nutrients that they may not always receive from the higher temperatures in the soil.
Armenian Cucumber
The Armenian cucumber is a fruit that is a variant of cucumber. It’s nutritious, and widely used for its edible flesh.
You can eat Armenian cucumbers raw, or you can use them as an ingredient in either salads or as a recipe in your cooking.
While Armenian cucumber is similar to the average cucumber, it’s more likely to be found in hot desert regions like Arizona.
Asparagus
Asparagus is a popular vegetable that is incredibly popular around the world.
You can serve them cooked or in a salad. It’s sometimes referred to as garden asparagus, or in some cases as sparrow grass.
It is widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, and they thrive well in shaded areas in sandy soil.
However, they can also survive in between two to six hours in direct sunlight.
Basil
While basil is neither a fruit or vegetable, this herb can be an excellent addition to your vegetable garden.
It can be grown in the heat, and you can plant it around the vegetables in your garden.
In fact, it can even provide shade to some of your vegetables and help them to stay shaded from any direct sunlight.
Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe is a great fruit to grow if you have other vine plants available to grow.
So, if you grow sunflowers, you can provide some more shade to your cantaloupes as you grow them.
These melons need to be fully cultivated in the sunlight, so they’re great for an Arizona garden.
You may find that cantaloupes are incredibly common to both Australia and New Zealands, where they’re more commonly referred to as rockmelons down there.
But in South Africa they’re more known as sweet melons.
Corn
Commonly referred to as maize, corn is a popularly cultivated vegetable. Full sunlight is needed to grow corn.
When you grow it in the summer sun, it thrives amazingly.
You can enjoy corn roasted or even raw. Corn is a staple in so many recipes around the world.
It’s no surprise that corn is so popular in sunny regions. Cultivated on farms around the world.
Surprisingly, corn gives the appearance of grain as it grows, but it actually falls under three different categories.
It is a vegetable, a fruit, and a whole grain too.
Eggplant
Eggplants are a fruit grown in the nightshade family, and it’s a common flowering plant.
It’s a fleshy purple fruit that you could grow carefully in the Arizona sunlight.
You can eat your eggplants raw, or you can cook it as you would use a cucumber.
While commonly referred to as an eggplant in the United States, Canada, and Australia, it’s also called an aubergine in both the United Kingdom and Ireland.
While eggplants can survive in partial shade, it grows better in full sunlight and in sandy soil.
Malabar Spinach
Malabar spinach may look like spinach, but it’s not exactly the same.
In fact, a common type of spinach would typically wilt in the sun in a too hot environment, but malabar spinach responds much better to higher temperatures.
If you want to grow malabar spinach in your Arizona garden, you should know that on average spinach will typically handle up to six hours of direct sunlight.
You just need to ensure that you also water it regularly, and that you also keep the soil around it moist.
Okra
Okra or also known as okro. It’s a flowering plant that has edible green seed pods inside.
While okra is classed as a fruit, it’s utilized quite often in vegetable cooking. In fact, it’s popular as a part of a gumbo recipe..
It grows great in its native tropical climate, which is warm, and sunny. It thrives in sunlit areas and doesn’t require shade to grow.
If you’re looking for a low-maintenance fruit to grow, you might benefit from growing okra in your garden.
You won’t need to look after it too much, which is great when you’re starting to grow some fruit and vegetables for the first time.
Peppers
Peppers are a similar fruit that is often mistaken for a vegetable.
They’re similar to tomatoes when you consider the acidic soil requirements and the need for high temperatures.
Peppers don’t grow well in the shade, and they need full sunlight to grow and mature properly.
Peppers are great to grow in the United Kingdom, Asia, and like tomatoes, in many African countries.
In fact, you can find that peppers are grown in a similar manner to tomatoes too.
Once you grow your peppers, make sure that you maintain them regularly through water and fertilizer applications.
Then, make sure that you mulch them properly.
Potatoes
Potatoes are a vegetable that is popular all around the world. In fact, potatoes are some of the most popular vegetables to make into sides for meals.
You can include them in so many different dishes, and can make salads with them too.
They are grown in the ground, and while they don’t need that much sunlight to grow, they can still be grown in direct sunlight.
However, you should keep in mind that when you grow potatoes that they need to still be in shade.
Ideally, keep them in the sun for two to six hours.
If you want to experiment with the types of potatoes you can grow, sweet potatoes are an easier option to cultivate in Arizona.
Pumpkins
While you might associate pumpkin more with the fall seasons and Halloween, it actually is a great fruit to grow in the sunshine.
In fact, it’s incredibly popular all year round and is native to North America.
You’ve seen it before with its bright orange ribbed skin, and you can use it in so many different applications.
Pumpkins are great and if you’re a fan of pumpkin pie, you can grow your own pumpkins to have all year round.
So long as you grow them in sunlight, you’ll find that with perfectly timed watering and fertilizing, you’ll be able to grow pumpkins quickly.
Sunflower
Sunflower is another member of this list that while it isn’t a fruit or vegetable, it can still be a great addition to your vegetable garden.
They have large petals and can grow to incredible heights.
Due to their growth in the sunlight, they’re tall and can help protect the fruits and vegetables in your garden from too much exposure to the sunlight.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are a great fruit to grow in hot regions. The best part about tomatoes is that they need to have full access to sunlight to ripen.
It’s one of the most cultivated fruits in sunny regions because of this.
Many other states with hot weather also benefit from growing tomatoes.
In fact, you can find tomatoes are incredibly popular to grow in hot countries, especially in African countries where it remains hotter.
If you grow tomatoes, you need to make sure that you have acidic soil available.
They can be grown in Arizona which is a low desert region, but you must be sure they’re watered and fertilized regularly for best results.
Watermelon
Watermelons are a popular melon that are eaten around the world.
They’re especially popular in areas with hot temperatures and are great for keeping hydrated.
Growing well in tropical conditions, it’s no surprise that they work so well in the Arizona sun.
To ensure that your watermelon grows well, you should ensure that you water it regularly.
However, many of the fruits and vegetables on this list require fertilizer for successful growth.
Instead, you shouldn’t fertilize it if you want it to grow faster.
Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve had a look at this article, you should have an idea of what type of plants you should grow in your vegetable garden.
You may think that you will struggle with growing your own vegetable garden in such a temperate climate, but that doesn’t have to be true.
These fourteen plants will help you successfully grow your own vegetable garden in Arizona.
When you’re growing fruits and vegetables, you should always make sure you use fertilizer in a timely manner, and water them regularly.
By ensuring that your garden is protected, you can successfully grow your own vegetables.
However, you should also make sure that these vegetables don’t go to waste, and that you enjoy eating them.
Hi, my name is Angie Strousse and I am a gardening enthusiast. Ever since I was a young girl, my favorite time of year was when I was able to get out in the yard and watch my dad begin his yearly gardening.
Growing up, we had a massive yard full of trees, shrubs, and plants. We would all bundle in the car and head down to the gardening center, where my brothers and I were able to pick one pack of seeds each to grow that year.
