Hi Everyone,

I am Tam, Canadian living in Saudi Arabia, just got into Gardening and started my backyard fruit and Veggie garden in March. All veggies started from seeds and fruits from transplant purchased from local nurseries. So far nothing is fruiting as a few months after planting summer season hit and temp here at the moment fluctuates between 40 Celsius to 50 Celsius so its pretty darn hot!! I know this extreme condition is not applicable in the US but if any of you have experienced planting in rough conditions like this I would like some suggestions on times of starting seeds and when to transplant outdoors. Just to give you small briefing about upcoming weather. Temp usually drops in sept to the 30's C and Oct to 23-35 C and no frost throughout the year.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I also have a small youtube channel just started a few weeks ago where you can check out what i have planted to see the conditions here tambasel is my username

thanks a lot and looking forward to hearing your feedback.

I would think That you woudl grow most vegetables in the winter. Hopefully South Florida, deep south Texas and southern California growers will chime in. While I grow most cool season vegetables in the winter I really don't have your extreme conditions. Welcome to the forum.

Hi Tam! Welcome to NGA.

I guess our garden-planting calendar won't help: it's based on first and last frost dates!
http://garden.org/apps/calenda...

I know that some Texas gardeners manage the heat by planting one spring crop of tomatoes (that stop setting new flowers and then die when the heat gets too bad) one one fall crop. Some people even take cuttings from their spring crop while they're healthy, and use those cuttings to start their fall crop.

I have no idea about high-heat gardening. I just barely have enough summer heat to ripen early tomatoes.

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I'm in South Texas. In my humble experience I find that heavy mulching, deep watering, and covering plants with old bed sheets or shade cloth can keep plants alive just enough to survive the 'dead of summer'. Then when the temperature starts to cool off, the plants will produce again. This only works with plants that were healthy to begin with and not heavily burdened by pests or disease. In mid summer, I expect to harvest very little except for certain heat loving plants like okra.
But in the meantime, I will be starting with with seeds in pots in the shade. As soon as the Temps cool back, I'll slowly start to plant them into the ground and keep well watered. I find it best to get a head start your garden early in the spring, expect a drop off during the hottest months of the summer, and continue for another round in the fall and sometimes into the winter. Hope that helps.

Thanks everyone,

Great advice.