Despite all the attributes of being the country’s fifth largest metropolis, what Phoenix is really known for is the heat. The Show series Hot Town explores the Valley's hotness in all its forms.
Hot Town is exploring all of the sometimes surprising ways our lives are shaped by the Phoenix heat — including in our yards.
Master gardener Melissa Kruse-Peeples' life is steeped in gardening. Along with having two gardens of her own — one in her front yard and one in the back — she manages the garden at Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus and helps the university with urban garden education and outreach.
She also runs a small scale gardening business with consulting classes and workshops and started the Phoenix Seed Swap with her friends.
It is a sweltering August morning when The Show visited her at at her Tempe home — but her garden was overflowing with food.
A lot of us might assume that you can’t grow anything in the desert. And even if you know that’s a myth, a lot of us might assume there’s no way you can grow anything in the summer in the desert.
Well, Kruse-Peeples thought the same thing when she first moved to Arizona from Nebraska for her graduate studies years ago.
