Heat Tolerant Vegetables: Ten to Grow in a Hot Summer

A hot summer will sort your veggie patch out for you whether you want it sorted or not, and the difference between a patch that keeps going and one that gives up in January is usually just what got planted in it. These are the ten that hold up in real heat, and what each one wants from you.

Sweet potatoes

They love warm soil and full sun, and the vines sprawl right across a bed, which drops the soil temperature underneath and smothers the weeds while the tubers do their thing. You can eat the leaves as well as the tubers, which not many people realise.

Okra

Okra produces when almost nothing else will. Full sun, keep the soil evenly moist, and it will hand you tender pods right through the hot part of the year.

Capsicums

Sweet or hot, capsicums want a long hot run and they will use every bit of it. Give them soil that drains and water them regularly, because irregular water is what leaves you with thin walled fruit and not much flavour.

Eggplants

Eggplants are made for this climate. They want soil with plenty in it and they want it to drain, and they need staking once the fruit starts, because a loaded eggplant will lean over and snap itself.

Chillies

Chillies want direct sun and plenty of it, and the hotter it gets the happier they seem to be. There is a variety for every level of heat you can handle, so pick the one that suits what you actually cook with.

Zucchinis

Zucchinis produce so well that you will end up leaving them on the neighbours' doorstep. They need room to spread, and water them at the base rather than over the leaves, because wet foliage in the heat is how you get powdery mildew.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers grow fast and produce heavily in warm weather, and they do much better up a trellis than sprawling on the ground, because the fruit stays clean and the air moves through the plant. Regular water is what keeps them crisp rather than bitter.

Snake beans

Also sold as yardlong beans, and they will grow in heat that flattens an ordinary bean. Put them on a frame or a trellis and the long pods hang down where you can actually see them.

Cherry tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes hold up in heat far better than the big varieties do, and they keep setting fruit when a Grosse Lisse has stopped. Plenty of sun, steady water, and mulch around the base to keep the moisture in the soil.

Amaranth

A heat loving leafy green that most people have never grown. The leaves go into a salad or a pan, the seed is edible too, and it copes with dry conditions better than any other green I have tried.

The short version

If you plant only three of these, make it cherry tomatoes, zucchini and capsicum, because between them you will have something coming out of the patch every week of the summer.

Shop related products

• D.T. Brown Okra Lady's Finger Seed. The one that keeps going when the rest have stopped.
• D.T. Brown Capsicum Sweet Delight Seed. Sweet capsicum for a long hot season.
• D.T. Brown Chilli Pepper Hot Seed. For anyone who wants heat in the pan as well as the garden.
• D.T. Brown Zucchini Lebanese Seed. Plant two, not ten, and you will still have plenty.
• D.T. Brown Cucumber Lebanese Seed. Best grown up a frame rather than along the ground.
• Martins Organic Sugar Cane Bale 11kg. Mulch is what holds the whole thing together in January.

Did you know we also stock garden trellis and twine in the shop for the climbers. They are not listed on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The seed racks and the mulch are in the garden centre, and if you tell me how much sun your patch actually gets I will tell you which of these ten to bother with. Drop your own heat proof favourites in the comments below.

More from the garden

• 3 Easy to Grow Summer Vegetables for Beginners
• Growing Tomatoes in Summer Heat: Five Mistakes to Avoid
• Summer Watering Tips to Keep Your Veggie Garden Thriving

Cheers, Candeece. I plant zucchini every year like I have learned nothing at all.