How Growing Climate-Adapted Seeds Got Us Through the Extreme Summer Heat

This summer was HOT. According to the National Weather Service, this summer was Denver’s 4th hottest summer since 1872 (tied with 2020); July was Boulder’s hottest month since the late 1800s; and 2026 is the warmest year on record for 90% of Colorado. Phew!

summer 2026 record heat temperature map cnn

As farmers, that meant waking up early to work in the garden before the blazing heat and then hiding away in the air conditioning starting around 10am until dusk. The other option was to dip in our homemade cold plunge (= stock tank), which would buy us another half hour in the field before overheating again.

stock tank used as a cold plunge during heatwave


The positive side to the summer heat was that it gave us the opportunity to put our drought-tolerant seeds to the test.

We have known that our seeds are incredibly resilient, having been grown for many generations in our harsh Southwestern climate. And we know that the Indigenous seeds we steward – including the Rainbow Flour Corn, Hopi Squashes, Tepary beans and other Southwestern Beans, and Native Melons – have been grown using dryland and water-conserving practices for thousands of years.

farmer planting handful of seeds tepary beans

But this summer was the hottest on the farm for us so far, so we were very curious how they would do...and they did not disappoint! 

The plants thrived, clearly happy in their element. Sometimes during the mid-day heat the huge squash leaves would droop, which is a way they protect themselves from the heat. But come evening their leaves would flare back out again.

The corn, beans, squash, gourds, melons, watermelons, flowers and greens all grew vigorously and produced abundantly. Even the tepary beans, which initially got munched by a voracious gray squirrel, sprang back! The joy that our green growing plants exude in the desert is palpable :) 

When we first started gardening, we learned how non-climate adapted seeds easily wither, turn yellow, get consumed by pests because of their lack of resilience, or fail to even germinate. Does this sound familiar to you?

In this intense heat, growing such non-adapted seeds would’ve been VERY stressful. We would have needed to water every day, add row cover over all the plants, and baby them with additional fertilizer/organic matter/compost. This would have cost us tons of extra time, money and energy. 
vibrant earth seeds farm southwest desert gardening
Instead, we came through the hottest summer on record with no crop failures and our sanity (mostly!) intact.

We feel grateful to be able to work with these plants. We continue to select the most robust, vigorous plants for seeds to pass along to all of our customers and future generations. 

southwest sunset over farm and sleeping ute mountain colorado landscape

As we head into fall, we're already turning our attention to seed-saving — and in an upcoming post, we'll walk through the techniques we use to select and preserve the most resilient seeds season after season.

In the meantime, if you're curious to try some of the varieties that carried us through this heat, you can find links to our nitrogen-fixing corn and tepary bean varieties linked below.

Thank you for growing alongside us, and for helping keep these seed lines thriving for years to come. Stay cool out there!

https://vibrantearthseeds.com/products/tepary-bean-mix

https://vibrantearthseeds.com/products/slime-corn

 


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climateheatlandrace seedsnative seedsseedsweather

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