My "early" garden was a bust, even with shadecloth on parts of it, though I may have waited too long before shading. I grew 4 kinds of corn, all supposed to be heat & drought tolerant & got nary an ear, but it bloomed. On the other hand, my fall garden did well & I managed to get at least some tomatoes. My winter garden is peculiar--lettuce & some greens bolting, broccoli making loose heads, etc. In January. Just enough cold weather for my cabbage to start heading finally. I have planted a couple of cool weather tomatoes in hopes they will survive, but the others stay in for now. Most of the black tomatoes will continue to produce in heat & a few others. I find myself freezing more now so I know I will have it. Last year was a sure cure for complacency!

Yes, amaranth is a great warm season crop. The greens are better cooked than anything you can buy in the market, and the seeds can be harvested in the fall for mixing with flour or popped. I'm surprised nobody mentioned sweet corn or sorghum. Also cotton (as a novelty), sunflowers (for the birdfeeder, dye, or roasting), sweet potatoes, peanuts, basil, and artichokes (from transplants), to name a few. Here near Santa Fe I'm able to grow all the cool season crops throughout the summer with no special care, so I'm guessing that the 10 degree warmer climate of Albuquerque should not rule these out completely. Maybe some partial shade or a good cooling mulch of straw is all that's needed. Cool season crops that seem especially tolerant of the hot summer include: certain lettuce types, cilantro, dill, peas, arugula, and even spinach. The least heat tolerant in my experience are the brassicas: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale, although they usually make it through and provide me with a good harvest. Good luck...

it's always like a heat wave in orlando LOL but that's our normal :-) going to mid 90's today, humidity near 99% (as usual). last summer we set a heat record, 110 days straight at 90 or above then last winter set record cold with both lowest temps ever recorded and longest length of time at record cold. i was sure we were in for a record summer after a hot spring but it's been pretty normal thou a bit dry. norms right now are 94/77 for 2 more months then we trend down :-) the other evening i put a hygrometer from inside the house out on the lanai, it shot up to 99% humidity in a minute LOL brought it back inside after 15 minutes and it went down to 65% LOL that's dry for us :-) it had not even rained that day! ~ liz

Timetraveler I'm on the old dune line of east Stuart, west side of the intercoastal and the only bean that produces in the summer are the asparagus beans and yes the aphids are a problem with them. The rest of the year I plant Rattlesnake beans. One year I had a rust issue with then but other than that they do well. Nematodes are thick as thieves in my sandy yard, all the veggies are in raised beds.