I’m happy to share any tidbits I’ve learned along the way. If your daughter is young, you will want to plant veggies that are easy to grow so she will have a successful experience.
The Phoenix area has two veggie seasons, cool and hot, so make sure you plant appropriately, i.e. things like snap peas will only fry in our summer heat and tomatoes will not flower or set fruit.
I garden organically and amend the soil in my raised beds each time I plant (twice a year), using a combination of compost, and sterilized manure. I don’t know if it is appropriate to mention brand names, but most can be obtained in the local big box garden department.
One brand I will mention is Dr. Earth Home Grown Organic Tomato, Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer, which I highly recommend.
At this point in our blast furnace season we call summer, it’s too late to plant and now is the time to amend the soil in preparation for planting in August and September.
And BTW, happy first day of summer–the temps are going to reach 100-and-WHAT today!!!
Like you, I set up shade cloth on the west side of the garden to help mitigate the effects of the afternoon sun.
As far as watering, when the temps hit around 100 - 104, I enable a second watering time for the veggies at 4:00 pm. In the summer, I use a fixed schedule to water the veggie beds daily at 5:00 am.
Since plant transpiration rates increase with the increased temps, when the heat-loving Armenian cucumbers and okra wilt in the afternoon, I know it’s definitely time to enable that afternoon watering.
Some time back, @emil asked if I could share some veggie gardening tips, and I intended to, but life happens and for quite awhile I have only occasionaly lurked here. I’m having to get caught up and as we will be revamping our Sonoran garden, I’ll have more time to try new configurations. I may call upon you to help me then.
If you want more specifics, PM me and we can chat.