What to Plant Now: May in the Southwest Gardening Region

By Staff
Published on March 26, 2009
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WHAT TO PLANT IN
May

Southwest Region

 


 

We need to develop an attitude of loving cooperation with no idea of “conquest.” It’s much easier to learn about a thing you love than a thing you intend to conquer or dominate.

The Plowboy Interview: Euell Gibbons

Author, Stalking the Wild Asparagus

Issue #15, May/June 1972

To read more about what to plant in other months and regions, visit our What to Plant Now home page.

For planting times specific to your zip code, check out the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Vegetable Garden Planner. 

 

 

Top Crops for the Southwest Region:

Here are the Top Ten crops for the Southwest region, followed by other recommended crops, as rated in our National Survey of Most Productive Garden Crops. (The criteria for selection include ease of culture, efficient use of garden space and time, ease of storage and desirability at the table.) The recommended crops are sorted by plant family to help you plan rotations so that the same plant families are not grown consecutively in the same area, as much as possible.

Top 10 Crops: Southwest Region

1. Potato
2. Garlic
3. Cherry tomato
4. Bulb onion
5. Slicing tomato
6. Carrot
7. Summer squash

8. Snow/snap pea    

9. Paste tomato
10. Sweet pepper

  1.  

Cabbage family:  Kale, kohlrabi 

Cucumber family:  Cucumber, pumpkin, winter squash 

Leafy greens:  Arugula, chard, Chinese cabbage, mache, lettuce, pac choi, spinach 

Legumes:  Dry soup beans, edamame, fava bean, snap beans, snow/snap and shell peas, Southern peas

Root crops:  Beet, radish, rutabaga, shallot, sunchoke, sweet potato 

Tomato family:  Eggplant, peppers (all types), tomatillo

Miscellaneous: Bulb fennel, leek, okra, rhubarb, scallions 

VEGETABLES 

Sow Indoors   

Sow Outdoors  

Transplant 

Beans, snap    XXX   

Cantaloupe 

  XXX   

Corn 

  XXX   

Cucumber 

  XXX   
Gourds    XXX   
Jicama    

 

 XXX 

Melons 

 

XXX 

XXX 

Okra 

  XXX   

Peanuts 

 

XXX 

  
Peas, southern    XXX   

Peppers 

 

    XXX 
Potato, sweet      XXX 

Radishes 

  

XXX 

  

Scallion (green onion)  

 

XXX  

XXX 

Watermelon 

  

XXX 

  

CULINARY HERBS  

Sow Indoors   

Sow Outdoors  

Transplant 

Basil 

    XXX  

Cilantro 

  XXX    

Marjoram  

 

  

 XXX 

Rosemary 

     XXX  

Sage 

     XXX  

Savory, summer  

 

  

 XXX 

Thyme 

     XXX 
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