Why the Southwest Needs Its Own Book
From the low deserts of Phoenix and Tucson up to the cold high country, a few thousand feet of elevation completely rewrites the calendar. In the low desert you garden in the cool months and shut down for a brutal summer; up high the season flips back toward a short northern-style summer. Same state, opposite years.
Water and soil define the rest. Rainfall is scarce outside the summer monsoon, and the ground is alkaline, low in organic matter, and often capped with rock-hard caliche. The fixes are the opposite of the humid East: sulfur not lime, shade not sun-chasing, and deep infrequent water. The book is built for that reality.
Planting Season Southwest fixes that. It calibrates to the region, gives the local shifts throughout, and works with your ground and your weather instead of against them.
What You Get Inside
The Full Chapter List
Seventeen main chapters plus a nine-part plant library. Every chapter is written for the Southwest. Every chapter assumes you want to eat what you grow.
The Plant Library (parts 1 through 9)
- Part 1: Leafy greens and brassicas, with the cool-season windows that suit Southwest
- Part 2: Fruiting vegetables, with chiles and desert-adapted heritage crops and the timing that works here
- Part 3: Root vegetables, with soil and season notes for the region
- Part 4: Heat-lovers and warm-season survivors
- Part 5: Legumes, beans and peas through the local seasons
- Part 6: Herbs, the ones that thrive and the ones to baby
- Part 7: Fruit trees, vines and perennials suited to Southwest
- Part 8: Regional and native edibles worth a place in the garden
- Part 9: Companion plants and flowers
Each plant entry includes Southwest sowing windows by season, spacing, sun, water needs, companions, common pests, common diseases, a kitchen-use note, and a realistic local tip.
A Sample from the Book
Everywhere else, summer is the season and winter is the rest. In the low desert it is the reverse. The garden runs through a mild bright winter, and when July arrives with its wall of heat, you shut the beds down the way a northern gardener closes up in December.
Climb a few thousand feet and the year flips again toward a short mountain summer. Elevation, not the calendar on the wall, tells you when to plant, and the alkaline ground wants sulfur where the rest of the country reaches for lime.
Who It's For
You just moved in, the yard is bare, and you want food growing next season. The book walks you through your first year, step by step.
You followed generic advice and lost crops to the wrong timing. This book tells you why, and gives you the calendar built for the Southwest.
You gardened somewhere else and moved. the Southwest keeps a different schedule. The book recalibrates your timing to local reality.
You rent, or you are short on space. The small-spaces chapter is built for patios, balconies and raised beds.
You want real food, lower grocery bills, and a yard that feeds the household year-round. The book is the 12-month plan for that.
You know your way around a garden. The plant library and the the Southwest-tuned calendar are the reference you keep on the bench.
Pair the book with the free Planting Season app
The book is the full reference; the free app is the day-to-day. the Southwest is covered month by month, with reminders tuned to your region and a mobile plant library you can search from the garden.
Open the Planting Season app →Why This Book, Not Another
Planting Season Southwest is written for the Southwest and nothing else. If a paragraph could apply unchanged to another part of the country, it does not belong in this book. The voice is plain and direct, the neighbor over the fence, not a textbook.
It is built to last: a genuine reference you come back to every season for years, paired with the free app for the day-to-day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the book cover both the desert and the high country?
Yes. The Southwest is organized by elevation, from the low desert up to the mountains, and the calendar and plant entries change with the bands, because the season does.
Why does it say summer is the dead season?
Because in the low desert it is. The extreme summer heat stops most vegetables, so the main garden runs through the mild winter, with a monsoon-season window in between. Higher elevations keep a shorter summer garden.
Why sulfur instead of lime?
Because Southwest soil is alkaline, the opposite of the acidic East. Adding lime makes it worse. The soil chapter covers sulfur, organic matter, and breaking through caliche.
Does it work with the Planting Season app?
Yes. The app covers the Southwest month by month for free, and the book is the full reference to pair with it.
Grow food every month of the year in the Southwest.
Planting Season Southwest is coming soon to Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Be first to know.
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Gardening in another region? Browse the whole series →