7 Top Vegetables EASY to Grow in a HOT Summer 

man deserves his own show OR AT LEAST SOME SPONSERSHIP

The list:- 0. Red Okra 1. Perpetual Spinach (Loves heat , good all year rounder, good in stir fry) 2. Egyptian Walking Onion 3. Corn/Maize 4. Egyptian Spinach 5. Tat Tailed Radish (seed pods in stir-fry) 6. Kangkong (water spinage) 7. Sweat Potato 8. KALE

Here in Texas I haven’t found anything that is easier to grow through the 100 plus degree summers than okra. Easy, mostly pest resistant, cranks out spears like they were going out of style and just laughs off the sun without even wilting. It’s amazing.

I´ve grown those “walking onions” in Scotland and they are incredibly hardy. Mine were a lot stronger in flavour than most varieties. They did good service for our family as they had been passed down the generations for around 40 years from one single original bunch.

I think your one of the best garden videos channels on RU-vid that is because you are friendly, humorous, to the point without waffling on about nothing and don’t assume your watchers know nothing.

your videos are like pringles. once you pop you can''t stop

I got back into growing a few things when I saw Kale for $5 and tomatoes for $16/kg. I now have a couple of trellis' loaded with cherry toms and perpetual supply of bok choi, 2 kale and 2 spinach variants. I live about 20 minutes from you, and am about the same age, and know the nutritional value of lots of leafy greens in the diet. Thanks for the inspiration and knowledge. You've been a great motivation for me. And I've motivated a few neighbors to grow stuff, with my cuttings :)

Shared! The native Americans used to cultivate "the 3 sisters": corn, beans, squash. The beans will use the corn height to climb up and the squash will provide the ground cover to keep the moisture in.

This has quickly become quite my favourite gardening/farming channel! Easily entertaining, educational and comedic

Good stuff! We also grow Okra, Moringa, Hot Peppers, Calaloo, Seminole Pumpkin, Everglades Tomato, Black Cherry Tomato, Snake Beans, Cassava, and Collard Greens in the heat.

You can add in ginger // chillies // lemongrass // brinjals // okras.. they love the sunlight..

I love this channel, its like watching a TV series but better. Mark you have inspired me to spend most of my weekends in my small suburban backyard transforming it into a little food production playground. Cheers from Dave in Melbourne.

Sunflowers are a great hot weather crop and they look great in the garden.

If dad jokes were currency, you'd be a millionaire! I love it 😂 keep it up 👍 thanks for the tips! I'm off to Bunnings tomorrow 😁

So....we just ordered Walking Onions, a few types of spinach and Swiss Chard, a lettuce/cabbage combo that thrives in summer and more. We love watching your videos - if only YOU sold the seeds you'd reap greater reward, besides knowing that you're influencing the Veggie Farmers of FL, us! Thanks Mark!

This man's word game is nearly as strong as his gardening game. What a legend!

You're like the Steve Irwin of food foresters!!

I live in Alice Springs and found this video super helpful. I have also found Warrigal greens, Brazilian and Malabar spinach do very well all year round and the grasshoppers don’t munch on them either.

I've just gotta say Mark, youre a DAG!! I love that you're spreading the good word about self sufficiency in such a good humoured way and sending that excellent Aussie vibe out to the world: so proud! ♥️ from a fellow dag!! 🤗😉 🇦🇺

I’m loving your puns, “Hale the kale”!!!!

Chaya, amaranth, Malabar spinach, yard long beans, Seminole pumpkins, any cow pea (black eye etc.), true yam, everglades tomato, hot peppers, bush beans. These will all do well in the god forsaken let me know when satan gets here summer. I live in the sub tropics too, it's a miserable friggin season, it's even too hot and muggy if all your doing is lying around the pool drinking mai tai's......I hate it :) Thanks for the vid Mark gg.

"Hail the Kale", ... You're such a Dad, Mark! 😂😂 Thanks for the heads up, & when Summer arrives here properly, in Melbourne, I'll know exactly what will be the sure bet! 🤣👍👍😂😂😂

Ok all I can say is that your videos are amazing. It is so down to earth....no pun intended heh. But they are simple and normal and you cause your viewers to connect with you. Best gardening videos I have ever seen. Please do not stop

"We quickly found out that they couldn't be grown in summah... bummah" Give this man an award

Thank you for making this videos I've been watching for a while. People don't understand how important it is to learn things like this. Specially on this times.

I've got very limited space here at my apartment, but recently the manager cleared out the planter boxes so folks can plant what they want. Sweet potatoes and the Egyptian walking onions are now on the top of my planting list, along with tomato seedings for a Fall crop. Thanks so much for your gardening videos!

Him and his ultimate Dad jokes.

I grew an Italian kale last year, it was absolutely delicious! The leaves were longer, more narrow and very easy to harvest. Did well through the Eastern mid-Atlantic summer.

Thank you, Mark, for the great videos, and thank you all for the ideas in the comments! Other plants that grow well here in Mumbai’s heat are arugula, Armenian cucumber, cluster beans (guar), ivy gourd (tendli), elephant yam, ginger, turmeric, melons, and, as you mentioned in the beginning of the video, various gourds like bottle gourd, snake gourd, ridge gourd, bitter gourd, etc.

I just want to thank this guy for his contribution to the RU-vid gardening Community: I learned so much from each video and he always makes me laugh

@1:40 perpetual spinach (variety of chard) stems can be used like celery @2:28 Egyptian walking onions @3:29 Corn 🌽/maize @4:23 Egyptian spinach @5:06 rat tailed radish @6:02 kangkong (water spinach) @7:19 sweet potato @8:35 kale

To add to the list: Nasturtium! It's kept on growing abundantly through the heat of summer while it was too hot for other salad-like plants. If it needs water, the suddenly droopy leaves will tell you and otherwise - it's super easy to grow and the leaves have a good, reliable taste no matter what the weather throws at it. Last year I didn't even know you could eat the leaves, this year it's become one of my favs! The little green pods that form after flowering are also good to eat thin sliced (very spicy). Plus, pollinators love it, so it's good for all!

Dude! Love your videos. They are on point, informative and fun. You forgot an entire plant family that *adores* the heat: Solanacea, aka tomatoes. I live in barely outside the subtropics in Central Florida. Tomatoes, especially the indeterminate varieties, can be grown year-round here. The smaller the fruit, the easier time it has in the heat. The larger fruits seem to take a LOT out of the plant, so we grow mostly Sweet 100s, Yellow Pears, etc. for our Summer crops. I do have some heirlooms in a shady spot; Cherokee Purple. Japanese tomato rings are a great way to grow them, but I also like 5-gallon buckets. The heirlooms are in the hydroponic tower to ensure adequate moisture. We also have Malabar Spinach every Summer , which you probably have grown at some point. I LOVE that stuff. Mmmmm so tasty. Tell everyone to look at their local "weeds". Dandelion, Bidens, sorrel, etc are considered to be pests when folks don't eat them often enough to keep the populations in check. We also have a Passionvine that has plans to take over the neighborhood soon (and I think might be harboring an evil plot to take over the world at some point). The new leaves from all those plants are delicious cooked, and the flavors are even better mixed together. Also, Passionvine leaves are medicinal, helping to relieve pain and induce sleep w/out a hangover. (Tastes horrible, be forewarned. IDK why, as the baby leaves are very nice cooked.) Bidens is an effective antibiotic; I've even used it on documented cases of Staph and Strep (meaning they were tested by a doc & the bacteria identified). It's literally a life saver for those of us with severe drug allergies. The flowers of all these plants are beautiful AND taste great, too. Enjoy them in salads, on cream cheese sandwiches or make a delicately-scented tea. So there they are, my additions to your list: tomatoes, malabar spinach, passionvine, and "weeds" aka naturalized greens in your area. Thanks for having us!

When I lived in Texas, USA, I found that peppers generally do okay up to 100 F but can sag a little if temps go over 100F. Also, some bell peppers can become sunburned so a little shade will help. The same can be said for tomatoes. Of course it also depends on how dry and how high the temperature goes.

Hi Mark.......Amaranth and African Nightshade (considered as weeds but now being labelled as "super foods"), okra as well as Moringa do well in the hot, humid season along the Kenya coast as well as inland.

Hey Mark, Try amaranth greens. Great taste and versatility. Also quick growing.

Great tips Mark. I've caught on the sweet potato's ability to withstand the heat. Something else I discovered this season is that they don't mind clay soil. I had a mound of "useless" clay after excavation and on a whim I planted a few tubers there and it is thriving!

Definitely want to do walking onions and those rat-tail radishes! Going to plant six of those recommendations. Thanks for sharing!

Chaya is a woody perennial that grows like crazy in the hottest weather here in South Florida and survives all year. Great spinach substitute and very nutritious and easy to propagate.

So many of these videos are virtually tailored to problems/questions which I've been faced with after my first year (almost) of food gardening. This one is particularly helpful with our Western Cape summers which utterly destroyed most of our leafy salad vegetables.

You’re sweating and I’m up here in below freezing waiting for a snow/ice storm, stay cool!

The Egyptian Spinach reminded me of Lamb's Quarter. I thought they were just weeds for a long time. I eventually looked them up and found out they are actually SUPER nutritious. Keep up the great work. Thanks for all the tips!

We live in hot steamy south Florida in the U.S. and successfully grow okra, snake beans, spinach mustard, Everglades tomatoes and rattle snake beans all summer long. Going to add perpetual spinach now. Thank you very much for sharing.

I live in a much colder climate (mid-atlantic USA), so it may not be the best tropical crop, but it always astonishes me how both cucumbers and zucchini flourish here without any care whatsoever. Some years I can't give them away because of it!

Great video! Love your garden. It's warmer here right now, only -8 (feels like -16) I'm starting my seeds soon and getting a jump on spring and summer. Thanks for sharing. :)

Kangkong! Yeah!! I love that vege. So famous in Malaysia. We used to cooked nasi goreng kampung with kangkung!. 🙋

Great video, thank you Mark! Here in Germany, we have had the 3 hottest and dryest summers ever in 2018, 2019, 2020, scratching 40°C in bigger parts of the country than usual. So it's an upcoming topic here as well. The kale was a really surprising one. It's usually planted in fall for wintertimes, standing on the fields frozen and in snow.

Hello Mark, from a new subscriber. Here in central Texas it also can get extremely hot and dry. After spending many years in IL I thought gardening was easy, but coming here to TX has humbled me. So I really appreciated your review in this video. I have found that my peppers (jalapeño, cayenne, and banana esp) do very well in our heat. They are great roasted/grilled. Cheers!

My extreme season is our summer, the heat shuts a lot of things down. Just added 3 new ones to my list, and thanks for reminding me about sweet potatoes.

I can agree the sweet potato and kale, are the last veg standing through summer, on minimal rainfall. The purple skinned, white flesh variety of sweet potato, does much better than any of the orange skinned varieties. I find their leafs are smaller (orange variety) and get riddled with holes by pests. Of course, they taste much nicer (and produce better) with supplemental water. One veg that I adore eating, and thrives in the heat, is Spaghetti Squash. Does require watering to get it to flower, but in my low rainfall region, it can grow on much less water than other veg. Certainly less than corn. I also love the Hot-Thai chilli, perennial tree for it's gumption to produce a prolific crop in summer, on minimal water. You really only need one tree, which is economical on water too.

Turnips also grow well in Qld summer. Back in Scotland they were winter crop but surprisingly they seem to do well in steamy hot summers. I have a 2m x 1m raised bed with 15 turnips which I planted at the end of Sept 22. It's now the end of Oct and the tubers are around 2 inches in diameter.

Gardening, humor and rhyming. This guy has it all. Great job!

I eat the sweet potato leaf it's actually great in salads I never let nothing go to waste even the chickens eat it it's easy to be grown with the slips are with the actual potato itself so either way you're never going to lose the original line of sweet potato you are growing...

Thank you so much for this Mark. Last summer saw many failures due to unusual heat. I have mostly been looking for over-wintering growing plants as that has been our 'hungry' period but the seasons are changing so much that the summer is now also a time for exploring new crops to grow in the UK. I find the perpetual spinach is so good to grow through summer and actually stands for most of the winter but if not, it comes back with ease. I've never heard of the Egyptian Onion and am so grateful you introduced us. I don't grow good onions here, only Welsh, Spring-types and the chive family so these look ideal. Egyptian Spinach? Wow, what a great find. I find spinach bolts so much here, I have to buy it. Also great to find I can get the seeds for these on ebay....yay!!! Also, I never tried sweet potato as I thought it would fail here....good new to find we can eat the leaves so if the tubers don't develop well....we still have food :) Kale is probably our easiest to grow veg here. It seems to cope with all weathers but I have to use a net frame against white fly and slugs love it too. The shop bought kale here is the pits but from the garden, it's another animal :)

I love this channel. Beats Better Homes and Gardens by far.

I absolutely love all the information you give in your videos. I really enjoy hearing about each plants history, what each plant is good at, how they grow in different climates, and where they originated from. Thank you for sharing

Love the new intro. And now I know what I can finally grow in Brisbane’s epic summers! Thank you!

Your videos are very informative and not too long, yet it takes me forever to watch them because I have to keep taking screen shots of all the amazing ideas; especially your amazing trellis and those neat hanging rabbit-wire baskets you had onions growing in! Subscribed!

I really enjoy your videos. You always make me smile and laugh plus I learn A LOT! My mother is Japanese and has always had a garden so I thought I had seen a good part of "unusual" vegetables but I have only heard of two of the seven vegetables you have growing in the hot season. Now to hunt down the seeds of these unusual vegetables!

Just re-watching some of your old videos, really love being able to access such great information and advice, thanks🙂

I love watching your videos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

You sold me on trying rat tail radish! Thank you for that. And my hens LOVE sweet potato vines/leaves to munch on. So happy to find this episode. Summers are getting hotter here in central Florida and I've been looking at different varieties to grow. Stay well and safe!

I live in Florida. So yes, I'm taking notes on this video. Thanks for all your videos!

Thanks for all the tips! This is our first year in Idaho, where we have land and a real growing season coming up. (We were from San Francisco, where land and growing climate were in short supply). Lots to grow, and much to learn!

I love your content!! I've just recently subscribed to you and after binge watching a few video's went on a trip to Bunnings today and picked up a bunch of herb, fruit and veggie seeds. I'm super excited to see them all grow, thank you for the inspiration 😊 p.s of course I got some mulch and good fertilizer too!! 🙂

Best way to eat kangkong is by blanching it then dip it in bagoong it compliments well with fried fish 😁 I'm from Philippines

He has all the best dad jokes 😂 love this channel!!

I am such a fan. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I love gardening and I have learned and enjoyed your videos so much.

Great video, we have a similar growing climate here in south central Florida. Looking forward to planting some of these.

I'm surprised the okra didn't make your list. Here in the southern US it's a commonly grown summer crop, is pretty much heat and drought resistant, grows fresh pods daily that only take a few days to mature. Gardening year round I'm always looking for plants that can stand the heat in the greenhouse in summer and the lower temps in winter along with the ability to handle low light. I planted some new zealand spinach a couple of years ago and it produces enough to feed an entire family from a small wicking bed and I haven't had to replant it yet. I have a couple of abandoned raised beds that I haven't touched or watered in years and yet there's large clumps of elephant garlic growing in them that I planted at least ten years ago. I like the climate here where I am but the soil is amazingly poor so it's difficult to garden without putting in some types of raise beds. For some reason the metal beds like yours are not popular or easily available. I've tried other materials but they all seem to have drawbacks. Wood rots quickly here, plastics get brittle fast, concrete blocks wick away too much moisture. This year I'm trying some shallow metal beds and so far they seem to be working well. Unfortunately the tall beds like yours are extremely expensive here or I'd try to get some.

You are the most pleasant and funny educator on gardening I've come across. Really appreciate the knowledge and the good vibes.

This is a great video! Thanks for the information. I've been wanting to get into gardening veggies and your channel helps out greatly. Thank you.

I was surprised myself that my Kale was surviving in the Sydney heat. I'm definitely gonna try grow some more. I'm growing regular okra but will definitely give red okra a go! Thanks for the video!

Id love some hot weather atm Mark lol. Fantastic veg there and I love Kale does so well here. Great stuff Mark

The sweet potato leaves are used in many dishes here in the Philippines, and its very nutritious!

This was such a helpful video! I'm just about to sow my first spring crop and this will definitely change what I sow. Thanks Mark.

Love this. I'm in central Florida, and we have a similar climate. This helps!

Okra is a great hot-weather veggie that we love here in the US southern states

I always learn so so much from you! Thanks for your help in us becoming gardeners👍

You’ve give me some great alternatives for our hot humid summer weather here. Thank you!

Amazing timing on this video, I watched the whole thing very attentively! I'm in Melbourne, so probably not anywhere near as hot as it is for you there, and yet STILL everything is going crispy and dying, even though I water every day! Might be a bit late now, but I'm going to buy the seeds for some of these things and give them a try! Thanks for the wonderful video! :)

Another great and entertaining video packed fill of vital information with lol moments. I love you work, love your garden! Have you ever made a video on the history of your gardens development, from beginning to end? Thanks again.

I live in FL and your videos have been an inspiration to me because I can easily match up what will grow here during our summer (or “winter”). Thank you for doing these videos.

Perpetual spinach may also be labeled as thin stemmed chard. I love it. Fabulous in any spinach recipe. I’ve grown walking onions, but it’s so dry here that they are tough and woody for us. I started growing bunching onions. Huge crops and love our heat, which is same as yours, but for 4 month of the year over 104f. Just planted almost 400 sq ft of corn, red polenta and painted hills( old fashioned type corn on the cob when at milk stage then meal or feed corn when dry.) I need to find seed for Egyptian spinach. Sounds yummy. Pickled rat tail seed pods are nice at bbqs and picnics. Water spinach might not do well for us. Our summer humidity is 30 % on a wet day. I’d love to grow it though. I wonder if I could grow it in our guppy tank outside. It’s about 150 gallons, made from an ibc tote cut in half. We grow purple sweet potatoes. Yummy and wonderful for the soil if we don’t get a chance to harvest it. We’ve grown kale over summer as a trap crop for cabbage butterflies and other pests. We let it gather the bugs and give plants and bugs to our chickens . Were a sun hat to avoid sunburn and skin cancer. Coolibar is a great choice.

Will try a few of these next years..I've found the egg plant, chilli and capsicum are particularly thriving in the 43degree heat we've been having here in NE Vic. Great timing & advice in this video as I was starting to wonder if a summer garden is worth it..

You rule man! I always smile when I see your videos!

Kia Ora, I subscribed to your videos because you are such an inspiring presenter. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to present these. I have so much respect for you especially when you took they time to reply to questions your viewers sent you. Cheers from NZ.

Oh my gosh! Thank you!!! The heat here right now is unbearable. Can't wait to get some of these started. Great ideas!

Thank you so much for your great videos actually i am Egyptian so i wondered about the Egyptian spinach...of course it’s not really spinach at all but Molukhiya I guess 😃

Love your videos. Going to look for some of those veggies in my seed catalogs. QUESTION: do you have video on how you created your self watering raised bed. That looked cool. Please provide the link. Spring will be coming in a couple of months and I can’t wait to watch it so I can plan out my garden.

Mark you are the BEST!!! I love your beautiful property and your sense of humor too. You are a great teacher and I totally enjoy all of your videos so much!!

I am so very glad I found your videos etc. I am in Arizona the west side of the "valley of the valley of the sun Glendale. Last summer we had the summer of the worst heat ever tempts of 120F plus daytime and overnight still 110F. Then the rains hit, flooding . plants I have grown for years died no matter what . now I have pests I have never seen before. Thank you for all your enthusiasm and the information.

Walking onion i will plant next summer. Pumpkin water melon chilli, bitter gourd, snake beans bottle gourd and loofah also heat survival

Love the video Mark and your channel. Longevity Spinach is a ripper. We're getting 40.c days here in W.A ,and where half of my plants have been almost melted by the heat, the Longevity spinach didnt bat an eyelid. Helps with blood sugar control and high blood pressure and as far as i know is an old chinese plant that used to grow wild and has been used around the world for eons. Tastes a bit like apple skins. i love it. If you could tell us what that tall kale was? only other thing i could ad is when you take a bite out of something to maybe give your opinion on taste/flavour. Love the show mate, im off to find some egyptian onions! cheers.

Amazing videos and information - thank you for sharing and for taking the time to make such entertaining and well-edited pieces!

I love your channel it has inspired me to start my very first garden. Hope you and your family are safe and may god bless you all. Keep up the great videos.

"They couldn't be grown through summer... bummer.." Sheer poetry.. 😂

You had me at "A lot growing on". We need more puns on RU-vid.

You are a life saving, life-skill giver SSM! I just moved to Florida and I've been slowly discovering how difficult hot summers can be on crops something that is totally foreign to me having spent most my life in New York. Thank you for the recommendations and levity.

Thanks for this video. I live in zone 8 in the USA. Our heat is very humid and your videos help here, too, even though your climate is drier.