The Chihuahuan Desert, long a corridor for trade between Mexico City and Santa Fe, New Mexico, is now home to five million people. The Rio Grande basin covers 172,000 square miles, crossing three U.S. states, more than a dozen Native American nations and five Mexican states.
Plant Answers. PLANT: March is a month to plant the gardener's favorite vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet corn and snap beans and pepper as well as cucumbers, lima or butter beans, cantaloupe, okra (if the soil has warmed sufficiently --70 degrees F. or higher), southern peas, pumpkin, squash, peanuts and watermelon.
Because a vegetable needs either warm or cool weather, crops sort themselves into two distinct categories: cool season (for spring and fall) and warm season (for summer). Planting in the proper season is the first step to a bountiful garden. FOR SPRING AND FALL: Plant the hardy and semi-hardy vegetables below in early spring for spring harvests and again in late summer for fall harvests. These transplants should appear in your local garden centers at the right planting time.