Just moved to so Colorado it will be a hot dry summer. It is windy here too. What are my best Vegs to plant and how do I protect them. Am in the high desert of pueblo

Lzipp, Welcome to All Things Plants!

In the light blue section on the left side of the page you will see something that says Goodies. The first item is Garden Planting Calendar. When I typed in Pueblo, Colorado this is what came up for what and when to plant in your area:
http://garden.org/apps/calenda...

I can't offer any tips as to how to protect your gardens from the wind but hopefully other members from Colorado or of like climates will pop in with suggestions.

There is an ATP member who lives in your area. He successfully grows and collects/saves his own seeds. Maybe he can offer some suggestions.
Let me use the @ symbol to draw his attention to your question:
@josebaca

I live in Reno - wind and heat at 5000 ft. And once in a while, 1 inch hail.

I don't grow corn anymore.

Put a thick layer of mulch over everything. Then put burlap over the mulch to keep it there. Pin it down with tent stakes or rocks. It takes more water to garden in the wind - the plants lose a lot of moisture through their leaves.

The only thing I have had trouble with is squash and cucumbers but I think that was too much sun. Last summer I used shade cloth over those vegetables and they did fine.

Oh, and I use T-stakes to hold my tomato cages which I use on everything: tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Tomato cages help keep tall plants standing up. T-stakes help keep the tomato cages standing up.

Daisy

Another thing to try, which will help your plants both stand up and not dry out too fast - plant your garden somewhere that is protected from the wind. If you know which direction(s) the wind usually comes from you could plant in the lee of the house or other buildings, or put up a (fairly solid, not chain link . . ) fence. Even a low berm would help to deflect the wind up and over your garden, but that involves a lot of earth moving.

Also look into installing micro-irrigation or a soaker system on a timer, so that when you water you're not throwing water up into the dry air, where most of it will evaporate before it comes back down to the ground. Very important to water early in the morning every day, while the ground is as cool as possible, and the winds are usually the least as well. The most water will soak into the soil before the sun is up, and get your plants ready to withstand the hot dry day to come.

Adding as much organic material - preferably finished compost - to your soil before you plant will also help to hold moisture in the soil, as well as providing a bit of slow-release nutrients and nourishing the micro-biome in the soil. It's like adding tiny pieces of sponge to the soil, the cellulose fibers of broken down plant material expand to hold water, then slowly contract as they dry to leave tiny air spaces in the soil - a healthy situation.

Then, as Daisy already said, once you've amended and planted, mulch, mulch, mulch! It will hold moisture as well, keep the soil cooler for your plants' roots and also prevent erosion by the wind.

One more comment, on the subject of fences - once you start a garden, are watering daily and growing luscious green things every critter for miles around will find your garden. Bunnies and deer alone will eat practically everything before the plants hardly get started, then they will still come to your garden for the water.

You will need a fence anyway. Just build one that will deflect the wind effectively without being blown down onto your garden. Again, I'd advise against chain link unless you want to grow vines or something on it to fill in the holes. Bunnies can dig under it, and it won't help with the wind problem. If you can block even a percentage of the wind, your water usage will be much lower, so even though a solid fence will be more expensive at first, thinking long term you'll save the extra money in water costs.

Lzipp said:Just moved to so Colorado it will be a hot dry summer. It is windy here too. What are my best Vegs to plant and how do I protect them. Am in the high desert of pueblo

Hi Lzipp! Welcome to ATP. I hope you find things to interest you here, like the Southwest Gardening forum.
http://garden.org/forums/view/...

I didn't quickly find any thread titles about good vegetable varieties for the high desert, but here is a more general thread.
The thread "Help on plants for New Mexico" in Southwest Gardening forum

My climate is the total opposite of yours (sea level, coastal, cool wet "Mediterranean" climate that has drizzle 8-9 months of the year, then a cool dryish summer). So I can't help with drought-tolerant vegetable varieties.

If you can find seed vendors that specialize in your climate, they should have catalogs full of ideas.

A quick Googling did not turn up many "desert seed" vendors for you to scan for suitable varieties.
http://secure.seedstrust.com/i...

http://www.desertusa.com/deser... - Native Seeds/SEARCH, an Arizona-based crop conservancy

If you see any ATP members with these "microbadges", they might be good peoaple to ask:
http://garden.org/users/prefs/...
Enjoys or suffers hot summers (a sun)
Xeriscape (four-leafed green-and-blue thing)
Region: Colorado (mostly-white mountain triangle)
Region: New Mexico (yellow state flag)
Region: Southwest Gardening (one cactus)
Cactus and Succulents (two Saguaro cacti)

My main suggestion is to plan to grow what you like to eat, then look for varieties of those vegetables that are most likely to tolerate your climate stresses.

Maybe start with the easier vegetables, but don't give up on what you like until you've tried a few varieties and killed a few rows of them!

Once you build up a collection of tricks and don't-dos , and learn to grow drought-tolerant vegetables, you'll have a good chance at growing more difficult species that you like better.

You can also use small seed company's websites as learning resources. Learn what varieties are most suited to your region. Keep notes!

Then, you might only find 1-2 packets that you really want to try at some companies. If their shipping and handling charge is too much to make 1-2 packets worthwhile, search for those varieties at larger seed companies until you can put together an order of varieties likely to be easy to grow in your high desert,, but with just one shipping and handling fee.

Or you can support such small companies by buying more seeds from them than you personally need right away, then trading 1/2 or 2/3 of those seeds for a wide variety of other seeds.

Cruise the ATP seed swaps and look for varieties you want.
http://garden.org/apps/swap/
Those seeds will be "free", but you have to pay postage going and coming, which will be around $14 total. But if you can bring home 20, 30 or more varieties for that much postage, it's a great deal.

Maybe: squash, watermelon, hot peppers, okra, green beans, amaranth, malabar spinach?

You might be able to grow tomatoes either before the heat gets too bad, or after the heat has eased off.

Articles about high desert gardening:

http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

http://blackgold.bz/high-deser... (how-to)
http://blackgold.bz/hot-summer... (veggies that beat the heat)

http://www.bendbulletin.com/li...

https://survivingthemiddleclas...

A thread in a "Survivalist" forum: Seeds for the southwest desert/high desert
http://www.survivalistboards.c...

A podcast by dave (who runs this website) about Desert-Plants-of-Utah after touring some state parks in Utah:
http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

Joseph talks about how to grow and select seeds better suited to an unusual climate: create your own "landrace" over several years:
http://garden.org/ideas/view/j...

Good luck!

P.S. Even if it takes a few years, it would be wonderful if you'd come back to this thread and mention the varieties that DID work out for you. That's how we all learn!

Lzipp;
Welcome and howyadoing?
Been gardening here for about the last 20 or so years, but, moved out of Pueblo and into Pueblo West. If that's where you live, then you have your work cut out for you. I don't know if you're a native or not, but the wind isn't going to be your only problem, if you look around, you'll see bakelites, trilobites and other fossilized prehistoric sea life, so you have to figure your soil is going to be commensurate with a seabed ( read lime and free lime problems ).
I solved ( sort of ) the wind problem by putting up a fence that's able to handle the gusts. The prevailing winds here come out of the west and are worse at certain times of the year but are nonetheless an everyday feature. I can hook you up with some extension and forestry people that can best advise you on the what, where and how, but the bottom line is if you plant a wind break then you'll have the shelter you need......in about 20 years!
If you live in Pueblo, you got it half licked even more so if out on the mesa ( farmland ) but here in P.W. not so much. I don't mean to discourage you, I actually enjoy the challenge ( what a weirdo, huh? ).
Send me a tree mail, and good luck!

P.S.
The best veggies to grow are pretty much any zoned for our area, so long as the soil and especially the PH are up to the task. The advise that you've gotten here from others is par excellance ( did I spell that right? )