To my gardening friends and family

I was told that I would hit my stride being here and working here at the one year mark. Having just passed that date, I have to agree. I am comfortable with the conditions I am living in and the projects I am working on have improved in quality and are coming along easier than before. One idea that I have had for a while but have not done anything about is buying vegetable and plant seeds in the states and trying them out here. I've sat on this idea mostly because I am not sure where to being looking for desert varieties, although I am sure that if I had enough time on the internet I could find out. This is where you all come in. I was wondering if you could help me research, and then send to me, good varieties of vegetables and ornamental plants that will grow well in dry (200-300 mm of rain per year) sandy and clay soils. I am thinking that if you could get your hands on a seed catalog that is intended for people in Arizona, that would be the best bet. When they garden here, the three most popular things to plant are mint, watermelon, and lettuce. Which is interesting because all three of those require lots of water. They have to varieties of mint here, small leaf and smaller leaf. They would probably poop their pants if they saw the type of mint that grows wild back home. After sugar, water, and tea leaves, mint is the final ingredient in the daily rounds of tea. If you could get your hands on a variety of mint that has big leaves or can tolerate a LOT of sun, since they have to cover the mint they currently grow here, I would be a god. A varieties of lettuce and watermelon that can tolerate lots of heat and sun would be amazing as well. Frankly any variety of vegetable that can tolerate excessive sun and heat would be awesome.

In terms of plants, these are a bit trickier because I don't want to be the guy who becomes known for introducing the invasive species that has now taken over everything. You would think that would be difficult to do in dry land areas, but someone brought over a species of cattail that is now choking out canals here. Really what people want are ornamental flowering plants. Enough bushes and trees exist here that I do not want to mess with them by adding anything new. Also ornamental flowering plants tend to be pretty benign. My requirements for flowering plants are that they tolerate heat, sun, dry sandy or clay soil, and most importantly, that goats do not like to eat them.

The rainy season is just about here, YAY!, so I wish I had sent this out earlier, but that's not really important. If you are interested in helping me research this, let me know what you find or where you are looking and I can help out. Also, please forward this to anyone else you know that might be a good resource, aka someone from Arizona.

Thanks for the help!