Best Crops to Grow in Your Tower Garden This Summer
When summer turns up the heat, not every plant is up for the challenge—but plenty of crops thrive in those sizzling temps. The key to a successful summer Tower Garden is choosing varieties that can handle the heat and keep producing, even when it’s blazing outside.
Here’s our guide to the best summer-loving crops for your Tower Garden, plus a few tips to help them flourish in the heat.
🔥 Heat-Tolerant Crops to Grow in Your Tower Garden
These crops are built for sunshine and warm nights. Whether you’re growing for salads, stir-fries, or snacking, these heat-friendly plants will keep your Tower productive all summer long.
🌶 Peppers
Peppers and summer go hand-in-hand—and they grow exceptionally well in the Tower Garden. Whether you’re after sweet bell peppers, snacking varieties, or fiery hot types like jalapeños or cayennes, peppers are heat lovers that thrive in full sun and warm nights.
Want to add a splash of color? Grow a mix of yellow, red, orange, and even purple varieties for a rainbow harvest that looks as good as it tastes. And just like tomatoes, peppers love a good prune—removing lower leaves and early suckers can help boost airflow and fruit production.
🥬 Malabar Spinach
Malabar spinach isn’t a true spinach, but it sure acts like one when it comes to flavor and nutrition—and it LOVES the heat. While traditional spinach wilts, bolts, and gives up when temperatures rise, Malabar spinach thrives in hot, humid conditions, making it a fantastic leafy green option for summer Tower Gardens.
This vining plant produces thick, glossy, deep green leaves with a slightly mucilaginous texture when raw (similar to okra). It’s great in smoothies, salads, stir-fries, and soups. The leaves hold up to cooking without turning mushy and are packed with vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron.
Malabar spinach needs a support structure, like a trellis, cage, or netting, to climb—so plan ahead and give it room to stretch. Once it takes off, you’ll be amazed at how fast it grows. Regular pruning encourages bushier growth and prevents it from overtaking your Tower (which it will try to do if left unchecked!).
As an added bonus, Malabar spinach produces small pinkish-purple flowers and dark berries later in the season, which are both ornamental and a great signal that the plant is reaching maturity. You can even save seeds for future growing seasons.
If you're gardening in a warm climate and want greens that keep going all summer, Malabar spinach is your heatproof hero.
🥬 Kale
Even though kale is part of the brassica family (which usually prefers cooler temps), it’s surprisingly heat-tolerant when grown in a Tower Garden. With consistent watering and a bit of afternoon shade, it can thrive through the summer months.
At Living Towers, we’ve successfully grown Green Curly, Toscano (Dino), and Red Russian kale right through the Florida summer—no bolting, just beautiful, hearty greens. Keep harvesting to encourage fresh, tender leaves all season long.
🥬 Pac Choi
Although it’s a leafy green (and many leafy greens struggle in the heat), Pac Choi is surprisingly heat-tolerant—especially when grown in a Tower Garden. We've found that with regular watering and partial shade during the hottest parts of the day, Pac Choi can thrive through the summer. Plus, it’s fast-growing, flavorful, and perfect for stir-fries or fresh salads.
🍆 Eggplant
Eggplant thrives in the heat and absolutely loves life in a Tower Garden. It’s a warm-weather powerhouse that grows vigorously and produces beautifully when given plenty of sun and support. Regular pruning and can help prevent issues and keep the plant focused on fruit production. Give them time—eggplant plants can be slow starters, but once they get going, they’ll reward you with a steady harvest of tender, glossy fruits well into late summer.
🌿 Basil
If there’s one herb that lives for summer, it’s basil. This sun-loving superstar absolutely thrives in warm temperatures and will grow fast and lush in your Tower Garden. Whether you’re making pesto, tossing it into salads, or simply enjoying the aroma, basil is a must-have for summer growing.
Basil is easy to grow, but the key to success is frequent harvesting. The more you cut, the more it grows! Regular pinching encourages bushier plants and prevents it from going to seed (bolting). If you let it flower, the leaves may turn bitter—so keep those blooms in check unless you're growing it specifically for pollinators.
There’s also more than one kind of basil to enjoy! Try varieties like:
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Genovese – Classic Italian flavor, perfect for cooking
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Lemon basil – Adds a citrusy twist to dishes and teas
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Thai basil – Stronger flavor with a spicy kick and beautiful purple stems
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Purple basil – Stunning in appearance and great for infused vinegars or garnish
🥗 Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is a heat-tolerant leafy green that keeps on giving—even when many other greens call it quits in the summer heat. It’s one of the most reliable warm-weather crops you can grow in your Tower Garden, offering a steady supply of tender leaves packed with nutrients.
Chard comes in vibrant varieties like Bright Lights, which boasts stems in red, yellow, pink, and white. It adds not only a pop of color to your Tower, but also beauty to your plate. The leaves are slightly earthy and sweet—perfect for salads, sautés, wraps, or smoothies.
Swiss chard grows quickly and can be harvested continuously. Just pick the outer leaves and let the center keep producing. It’s also incredibly resilient: if it gets a little sunburned or wind-damaged, a quick trim usually brings it back to life. And bonus: it rarely bolts in the heat like spinach or lettuce, making it a top performer for summer gardening.
🌱 Okra
This Southern staple thrives in hot, humid weather and grows surprisingly well in the Tower Garden. That said, okra is a very large crop—tall, leafy, and fast-growing—so it’s not for everyone. If you're short on space or want a tidy garden, it might not be the best fit. But if you’ve got the room and love tender pods, it’s a summer powerhouse! Just be sure to harvest often to keep them coming.
🥒 Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a warm-weather favorite—and when given the right support, they can thrive in a Tower Garden. They grow quickly, produce abundantly, and are incredibly satisfying to harvest right off the vine.
Because cucumbers are natural climbers, they do best in a Tower Garden when you provide a trellis, cage, or vertical netting for them to latch onto. This not only supports the weight of the fruit but also keeps the vines off the ground (or out of your Tower’s ports), improving airflow and reducing the risk of pests or mildew.
Cucumbers love full sun and regular watering—especially when they’re fruiting. Tower Gardens make it easy to keep them hydrated, but you’ll want to check the water level often in the heat. Fertilize lightly and consistently, and keep an eye out for early flowers—pollination is key to fruit development.
Harvest cucumbers when they’re still small and tender to keep the plant productive. Overgrown cucumbers left on the vine can slow future production and cause bitterness.
With just a little support (literally and figuratively), cucumbers can be one of the most rewarding summer crops to grow in your Tower Garden!
🧅 Chives
Chives are one of the easiest and most rewarding herbs to grow in your Tower Garden—and they’re surprisingly heat-tolerant, too. These hardy little perennials are part of the allium family (think onions and garlic), and they bring a mild onion flavor to dishes like baked potatoes, salads, soups, and dips.
Chives grow in tight clumps and don’t need much space, making them perfect for plugging into the smaller ports on your Tower. They tolerate warm weather well and can handle full sun, although a little afternoon shade in extreme heat can help keep them lush.
The best part? They’re cut-and-come-again. You can snip what you need with scissors (cutting down to about 1–2 inches above the base), and they’ll grow right back. Plus, their pretty purple blossoms are edible and attractive to pollinators if you let them bloom!
Pro tip: Chives also act as a natural pest deterrent, helping to repel aphids, carrot flies, and even Japanese beetles—so they’re a great companion plant for more vulnerable crops.
🌿 Celery
Celery can be a bit of a slow grower, but it’s totally possible to grow it in your Tower Garden—even through the summer—with the right care. While it typically prefers cooler temps, we’ve found that celery grown hydroponically with consistent moisture and partial shade can hold up beautifully in warmer months.
The key to summer celery success is keeping the roots cool and the water levels steady. The Tower Garden makes that easy with constant water circulation and access to minerals. Celery will literally outgrow it's space so it's best to plant it in the top pot so you can easily remove the shower cap and take out the celery.
Celery grows tall, with thick, ribbed stalks that can be harvested one at a time from the outside in—just like chard or kale. You’ll get that crisp, classic crunch perfect for snacking or juicing, and you can even use the leafy tops in soups, stocks, or smoothies for extra nutrients.
Bonus: Celery can be regrown from the base if you want to try an experiment with kitchen scraps—just pop the rooted end into a Tower port and watch it come back to life!
🎃 Squash
Summer squash varieties like zucchini can grow in a Tower Garden with proper support and pruning. But be warned—squash plants can get huge! They need space to spread and can quickly take over a Tower if left unchecked. Not ideal for compact setups or small patios, but if you’ve got the room and love homegrown zucchini, squash can be super rewarding.
🍅 Tomatoes
A classic summer crop! Cherry, grape, and Roma varieties grow particularly well in Tower Gardens. They love the heat up to a point—but when nighttime temperatures stop dropping below 70°F, most tomato plants will slow down or stop producing altogether. The exception? Everglades tomatoes! These tiny but mighty tomatoes thrive in extreme heat and humidity and can produce nearly year-round, especially in places like Florida. Perfect for summer (and beyond) if you're looking for a tomato that can beat the heat!
🛒 For More Heat-Tolerant Crops
Looking for even more summer-friendly options?
👉 Click here to view our available heat-tolerant seedlings »
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☀️ Want Even More Summer Growing Success?
Choosing the right crops is only part of the equation—how you grow them during the summer is equally important. From adjusting your nutrient mix to managing sunlight exposure and pruning techniques, we've compiled essential tips to help your Tower Garden flourish in the heat.
👉 Check out our blog post: 10 Summer Tower Garden Growing Tips To Ensure Success
Discover how to optimize your Tower Garden's performance during the hottest months with practical advice and expert insights.