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11 Vegetables & Fruit Ideas to Grow in your Backyard This Summer

Summer can be an exciting period with all sort of fun outdoor activities. For those of us with great looking gardens in our backyard, it could be a nightmare. We might get a little worried because the summer sun during the day and warm nights can take a toll on the crops in our gardens.

Some of you have been asking questions like “what is the best vegetable to grow in the summer?”

You don’t have to worry because I have good exciting news for you, there are some crops that can withstand the heat and keep your vegetable garden productive and your backyard looking attractive.

I made a list of 11 ideas for vegetables you can plant in your backyard garden this summer.

Vegetables & Fruits to Grow in the Summer Season

1. Tomatoes

Tomatoes is one of my favorite vegetables to grow during the summer season. However, the hot summer temperatures can affect the growth of the tomatoes. Julie Martens in her article on growing tomatoes in summer highlights this problem:

Sizzling summer temperatures can bring your previously productive tomato plants to a screeching halt. When days hit 85°F to 90°F and nights hover above 75°F, tomato flowers often fail to pollinate, then drop — which in turn puts new fruit production on hold. The longer the heat lasts, the longer those tomato flowers will continue to hit the pause button. In short, hot weather can delay your tomato crop.

Read Julie’s article about how to grow tomatoes in hot weather Here

2. Peppers

Via bonnieplants.com

Another easy vegetable you should consider growing in your backyard this summer is pepper. Peppers do well in the summer season. An article on Bonnieplants.com provides a quick guide:

Growing peppers is easy in any sunny, well-drained spot, and they are good candidates for roomy containers, too. Peppers have a naturally upright growth habit, so they often benefit from staking, which keeps brittle branches from breaking when they become heavy with fruit.

Colorful peppers also make great additions to beds planted with flowers and other edible ornamentals, where they can easily serve as specimen plants. In beds or rows, the best spacing for most pepper plants is 18 to 24 inches apart (check the tag for exceptions).

Peppers grow best in a soil with a pH between 6.2 and 7.0, although they can tolerate slightly alkaline conditions near 7.5. Mix a 3- to 5-inch layer of compost into each planting hole, as shown in the step-by-step planting directions. A generous amount of organic matter helps the soil retain moisture, and moist soil is crucial for good pepper production. After planting, mulch each plant to keep the soil cool and moist.

Visit bonnieplants.com see the complete Quick Guide to Growing Peppers in the Summer.

3. Lima Beans

This snap like looking beans is easy and quick to produce. It does best in temperatures between 60° and 70°F.

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Marianne Lipanovich puts it this way:

Lima beans evoke strong feelings in people, so keep that in mind if you add them to your garden. They combine features of both snap and dry beans. They look like snap beans and are available as bush and pole varieties, but are slower growing and need to be shelled before eating. They can be eaten green or dried.

Lima beans come in different varieties. Steve Albert advice that lima beans be planted in evenly moist and well-drained soil:

Grow lima beans in soil that is evenly moist and well drained. Bean seeds may crack and germinate poorly if the soil moisture is too high at sowing. Do not soak seeds in advance of planting or they may crack; do not over-water after sowing. Keep the soil evenly moist during flowering and pod formation. Rain or overhead irrigation during flowering can cause flowers and small pods to fall off. Once the soil temperature averages greater than 60°F, mulch to conserve moisture.

You can find learn more in Steve’s article How to Grow Lima Beans.

4. Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are easy to grow plants that do well in hot summer and are sensitive to cold weather. They come in two varieties: vining and bush varieties. They both can be planted in the hot summer weather. You can follow DIY Network’s steps on How to Plant and Grow Sweet Potatoes

5. Watermelons

In the hot summer having a slice of cold sweet, juicy homegrown watermelon is one of summer’s great pleasures and you should definitely consider growing it this summer. It requires warm soil with temperatures of about 70 degrees F.

To be safe, wait until at least 2 weeks past your area’s last frost date. Prior to planting, cover soil with black plastic to hasten soil warming. Because watermelons are heavy feeders, prepare your planting bed by adding seaweed, compost, or rotted manure. For best nutrient uptake, the soil pH should be between 6 and 6.8, although the plants will tolerate a pH as low as 5. If you live near a horse farm, another option that works well is to excavate the soil 1 foot deep, add a 9-inch-thick layer of fresh manure, and then cover that with 3 inches of soil mixed with compost. This creates a bed with a high-nitrogen soil base that’s naturally warm. Some gardeners even plant melons in their compost piles to ensure a warm footing and adequate nitrogen. Read Full Article…

6. Lettuce

For those of you that come from relatively cool weather climate, chances are that you love lettuce and even grow it. The fact is growing lettuce is relatively easy. Here is where the problem is, it is not a tropical plant, which means lettuce does Not like hot weather. If you still want to grow lettuce in summer, don’t worry, there is a solution.

Choose heat-tolerant varieties

There are four basic groups of lettuces: Crisphead, Leaf, Bibb and Romaine. This article on groworganic.com have identified the Heat Tolerant varieties in all four lettuce groups:

Bibb Buttercrunch, Speckles, Summer Bibb, Summer Bibb Blend

Crisphead Michelle

Leaf Black Seeded Simpson, Green Salad Bowl, Red Deer Tongue

Romaine Little Gem, Parris Island Cos

Provide shade

I found this video below very useful. You get tips on how to provide shade without spending anything.

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Finally, you shouldn’t forget to water the lettuce regularly!

7. Cucumber

Cucumber is easy to grow vegetable you consider growing this summer. Cucumbers don’t need much attention as long as you provide steady moisture. My friends at burpee.com put it this way “No summer garden should be without cucumbers.” Here are some tips they gave:

To improve overall cucumber production, consider using the following two techniques. Use black or brown plastic mulch. Because a warm, moist soil is essential for top production, use dark plastic mulch on the cucumber bed. This will speed up growth and increase yields by conserving soil moisture and maintaining a high soil temperature. The mulch will also keep weeds at bay.

Think vertical! When planning the garden, consider growing vining cucumber varieties like ‘Sweet Success’ and ‘Tasty Green’ vertically on a trellis, fence, or other support. This makes the best use of garden space by containing the vines and keeping them from sprawling throughout the garden, as well as keeping the fruits clean and straight as they develop above the ground. Researchers have proven that growing cucumbers vertically dramatically increases yields because the vines receive better air circulation and more sunlight than vines on the ground. Read Full Article…

8. Summer Squash

Summer squash is easy to grow vegetable you should definitely try growing in your backyard this summer. It can also be a great way to add great colors to your kitchen and backyard. Summer squash can grow in a wide range of weather conditions. Barbara Pleasant gave a list of Types of Summer Squash to Try:

Most summer squash are classified as Cucurbita pepo and vary more in appearance than taste. They come in a range of sizes, shapes and colors, so make plantings of several types to add variety to your table.

Yellow squash are buttery yellow and elongated, and some have crooked necks. Overripe fruits turn into warted gourds.

Zucchini squash produce large crops of club-shaped fruits with skins in varying shades of green. Some zucchini squash varieties are striped or even bright yellow.

Pattypan squash are an old type of summer squash that produce fruits shaped like plump flying saucers with scalloped edges. Varieties range from dark green to bright yellow to white.

Round and oval squash produce single-serving-sized fruits on compact, bushy plants suitable for large containers or intensive raised beds.

Tromboncino and zucchetta squash (C. moschata) produce large, curvaceous fruits with light green skins. Naturally resistant to insect pests, these rowdy, vining plants grow best on a trellis. Read Complete Article.…

9. Strawberries

I don’t have to tell you that strawberries are one of the most delicious fruits you can grow in your backyard garden. This delicious fruit can add to your list of summer treats. Steve’s in his article on Growing Strawberries in Hot Summer Climates taught me some useful tips for growing strawberries in hot summer regions:

Plant strawberries in late summer when the days are cooling, but the soil remains warm. This is the time of year older plants will also begin to revive. Fall is not the usual time to find strawberries in nurseries or garden centers; you may have to call on strawberry growing friends to give you strong plants or established runners. Set plants into compost rich, well-drained ground at the same level they were growing before. Do not set the crown of the plant too high or it will dry out; do not set plant crowns too low or they will rot. Water transplants into place and adjust plants if they settle too deeply. Set plants about 12 inches apart allowing space for runners that will follow to fill in the bed. Read Steve’s Article..

10. Carrots

I don’t have to tell you about the health benefits of carrots, they provide vitamin A, give us a beautiful skin, help in cancer prevention, they also help in oral health and eyesight. Carrots perform better in cool weather. Although they can be grown year round, the summer heat tends to decrease their sweetness.

When it’s hot and dry, you can also grow shorter, smaller carrot types that mature relatively quickly, such as the Parisian Market variety Atlas .

Growing carrots in the shadier, cooler part of the farm is critical for bringing them successfully through the heat. Sufficiently irrigating carrots from seeding to harvest can help keep the soil cool, and flavor better. Roots that are well irrigated will be milder and less bitter. Keep Reading Johnny’s Carrot Growing Guide

Also, check out Johnny’s article on Getting Your COOL-WEATHER Crops Through Summer’s Heat and Steve’s article on Grow Carrots Anytime of the Year in Five Steps

11. Peas

Peas are considered one of the most important plants in the human diet. Unfortunately, peas don’t really do very well during the hot months of the summer. They enjoy the cool spring weather and stop producing in hot summer temperatures. Gordon Solberg shares his dad’s secret on how to grow peas in a hot climate:

Despite the Sahara-like weather, Dad seemed to grow magnificent crops of peas, on vines that stood up and bore heavily even when afternoon temperatures hovered around the century mark! His secret: Give the plants water … lots of water. With this in mind, I decided I’d try to grow peas after all. Read the full article

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