About ​How to Grow Food Organically in
a Small Space and in the Supremely Hot and Dry Low Desert Climate of Phoenix, Arizona

For those new to organic vegetable gardening, the best time to begin to grow your own food was several years ago, ​
​but now is second best. ​Even if you start with just one vegetable, herb, or fruit tree, you can learn to grow your own food!​
Containers are one of the easiest ways to begin vegetable gardening, and you may never need a raised bed.

Click on the photographs from my own organic vegetable gardening if you want to learn to grow your own food
 (you can learn a lot from my photographs and website content even if you are not yet ready to hire me as a consultant), 
noting that only about five on the whole website are photos of food from other gardens or a store.

As of about May 12, 2022, I began creating a new section of photographs organized by food type (e.g., apples, grapes, citrus trees,
​guavas, and tomatoes). It can be found toward the middle of this page and here.

I Provide Phone, Text, & E-mail

Your Own Organic Vegetable / Edible Garden,
​
and my Private Organic Vegetable Gardening Blog for Customers
​Now Has 275 Posts!

In-person consulting may be available in Phoenix, Arizona
upon inquiry, but photographs may prevent the need.​

 SHARE HERE:

(Please note that consulting is presently only available to those in the United States.)

Plus I Can Give Tips for Growing Food In-Ground

Most of the food I have grown has been in containers, but at my last home, I also had a ​large raised bed
 for my organic vegetable / edible garden. I've also done a good amount of research on edible plants best grown ​in-ground or that can't fit into my relatively small space. And while I grow a number of newer cultivars
 called hybrids (NEVER GMOs), ​my preference is usually heirlooms for the stability they offer. 

​​e.g., Texas, Nevada, California, New Mexico, and other parts of Arizona

I can also help those in climates less hot than Phoenix, Arizona's ​103-122ish-degree ​summers enjoy organic vegetable gardening and growing food for oneself ​only or perhaps as part of a community of family and friends ​who each grow ​their ​own ​types of food and share the surplus.

Some of the many foods I have grown (mostly in containers) that are photographed in this section follow: cherries, sweet peppers, a first blackberry, cherry tomatoes, melons, guavas, buttternut squash, a vegetable that is similar to green beans, cactus fruit, kiwano melon, figs, kumquats, tomatillos, sage, carrots, a super sweet squash, a delicious spinach substitute, thyme, carrots, beets with mild edible leaves, olive tree, and nopales which are prickly pear flesh of the tastier and more tender cultivars, and kale.
​
To make the most of my desert climate, I am now adding cacti for the fruits and/or the flesh.

VEGETABLES AND OTHER Food I'VE GROWN
In MY SMALL SPACE SO FAR ARE LISTED BELOW
Vegetables, Fruit, Grains, Herbs and Spices, Seeds, and Nuts

I am adding photographs by food category in the blue section just below this one,
 and please note that a few of the flowers are not edible but are for attracting pollinators and beneficial insects. 

Note that a few of the flowers are not edible but are for attracting pollinators and beneficial insects.

• Apples
• Aromatics like lavender, patchouli, and geranium
• Arugula
• Asian vegetables like bok choy and napa cabbage
• Beans
• Beets
• Blackberries
• Boysenberries
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cacti for their fruit and/or flesh; prickly pears are one example
• Carrots
• Chamomile
• Cherries
• Citrus: key limes, limes, kumquats, lemons, mandarins
• Cucumbers & gherkins
• Dandelion greens
• Eggplant
• Elderberries
• Figs
• Flowers for attracting bees and other pollinators​

• ​​​​​​​Garlic
• Goji Berries​​​​​​
• Goldenberries
• Grains like oats, barley, and sorghum
• ​​Grapes including muscadines
• Green bean alternatives
• ​Green onions
• Guavas
• Herbs like parsley, sage, oregano, fennel, mint, rosemary, thyme, basil, mint, lavender, cilantro, bay leaves, celery, dill, caraway, ginger, lemongrass, turmeric, galangal, and mushroom herb
• Hibiscus calyces for tea
• Hot peppers
• Jujube fruit
• Kale
• Kiwano melons
• Leafy vegetables like chard, collards, mustard, orach, and shungiku
• Lettuce
• Louffa/luffa sponges
• Melons including watermelons
• Moringa ​​​​

• Mulberries
• Nasturtiums
• Neem tree
• ​​​Okra​​​​
• ​​​Olive tree
• ​Papaya
• Passion Fruit
• Peanuts
• Peas
• Pepino melons
• Pomegranate tree (my last landlord kept it, but I cared      for it for two years)
• Potatoes
• Pumpkins, squash, zucchini
• Radishes
• Some rare fruit trees
• Spinach
• Squash
• ​​Sunflowers
• Sweet peppers
• Sweet potatoes
• Tamarind
• Tomatillos
• Tomatoes
• Turnips
• Yerba mate 

​And a Video

of my Organic Vegetable / Edible Gardens

I have had my own organic vegetable gardens in Phoenix, Arizona (Zone 9b) for 4+ years, and below are many photographs from my two organic vegetable gardens (one using a raised bed and containers while the other is almost completely potted). I have grown over 100 varieties and types of edibles/food--with more varieties ​being trialed now--of vegetables, ​fruit, ​culinary herbs, grains, seeds, peanuts, cacti, and 'medicinal herbs' (that's what they're called, but I believe that God designed *all* of his foods to create healthy bodies and that there's a spiritual component to health).

ORganized by Food Category
Photographs of Some of What I Have Learned to Grow
(Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, Spices, Grains, and Peanuts)​
​

Apples

Arugula

Asian Melons

Barley

Basil

Bay Leaves

Beans

Beets

Blackberries

Black Goji Berry Plant

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Caraway Seeds

Cantaloupe-Type Melons

Carrots

Catnip

Celery

Chamomile

Chard

Cherries

Cilantro

Citrus Trees

Collard Greens

Corn

Cucumbers

Dandelion Greens

Dill

Eggplant

Elderberries

Elephant Ear

Feijoa aka Pineapple Guava

Fennel

Fig Trees

Galangal

Geranium

Geranium leaves are edible, but they're mostly used for fragrance.

Gherkins

Goji Berries

Goldenberries

Grapes

Green-Bean-Like Gourd

Green-Bean-Like Vegetables

Green Onions

Guavas

Hibiscus Calyces for Tea

Hot Peppers

Jujube Fruit

Kale

Kiwano Melon

Lavender

Lemongrass and Red Malabar Spinach

Lettuce

Lettuce Substitute or Salad Additive

Millet
as Bird Seed or for Sprouting

Mint/Peppermint

Moringa Tree
with Edible Leaves

Mustard

Nasturtiums

Neem Tree

Oats

Okra

Olive Tree

Oregano

Papaya

Parsley

Passion Fruit

Patchouli

Peanuts

Pepino Melons

Pomegranate Tree

Potatoes

Purslane

Radish Greens

Rosemary

Sage

Sorghum Grain!

Spinach

 Spinach Substitutes (Five Excellent Ones)

Starfruit Tree

Stevia (Natural Sweetener)

Sunflowers

Sweet Peppers

Sweet Potatoes

Tamarind Fruit Tree

Tatsoi

Thyme

Tomatillos

Tomatoes

Turmeric

Turnips

Watermelons

Winter Squash (Pumpkins, Butternut, and Hard-Shelled Kinds)

Yerba Mate Tea

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

​One long slideshow of many types of mostly food-bearing plants is below.

 "I'm getting my PhD in urban agriculture, and I've never seen a potted garden as impressive as yours. You should be in Phoenix Home and Garden magazine!" A neighbor 
(Glory to GOD for HIS designs!)

A WALK THROUGH my
ORGANIC Container Vegetable/Edible GARDEN
on april 17, 2021

If you Want to Learn to Grow Food
BUT SCROLLING IS NOT EASY for you RIGHT NOW

Screen captures from my website have been made into a slideshow here.

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