Sometimes, there’s no time for patience. These fast growing vegetables are perfect additions to the garden when you’re afraid spring planting season has passed you by.
Some of these work well in container gardens, too!
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Fast growing vegetables for a late start garden
Maybe spring passed you by in a whirlwind and you find yourself gazing at a vegetable garden space that’s bereft of an actual garden. Or perhaps you had an unsuccessful start due to poor weather or spotty germination. Don’t give up now – there’s still time to plant if you choose fast growing vegetables.
Plenty of crops mature in a two-to-three month time frame, giving you a chance to plant and harvest vegetables before frost hits. Choosing fast growing vegetables for your garden beds is the solution to a late start garden. Those of you with a later frost date have even more leeway; in the past, I’ve even planted tomatoes in early July and harvested a decent crop in September and October.
Those listed here are some of the fastest growing vegetables you can plant in your garden.
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Fast growing vegetables: root crops
Radishes
These ruby-colored roots are one of the fastest growing vegetables and ready for the table in just 30 days. When it comes to a harvest-in-a-hurry, radishes win hands down.
Beets
Plant beets now and you’ll be ready to make fermented beet kraut in just a couple of months. Bonus: thinning your row of beets after they sprout nets beet greens even sooner.
Fruiting vegetables that produce quickly
Cucumbers
Some cucumber varieties will start producing in just two months. These cucumbers are ready in just 48 days!
Beans
These legumes love the heat of summer and some varieties are ready in just 50 days. This means that you can plant them well into the summer months and still get a harvest. If you don’t have a trellis for climbing beans, plant bush beans. They stay compact and can even be grown in large containers.
Summer squash
Yes, you still have time to send your neighbors into hiding with unending gifts of squash from your little vegetable garden. Crookneck, scallop, and these cute little Ronde De Nice squash all start producing in 50 days.
Tomatoes
Yes, tomatoes are even a possibility at this stage if you opt for cherry tomatoes. Some cherry tomatoes ripen in just more than two months time. With any luck, you’ll have a chance to taste some of those tangy sweet fruits before winter sets in. And don’t discount larger varieties or Roma tomatoes, though it’s unlikely that you’ll harvest many ripe tomatoes in a short window of time. Even if you’re too late for a crop of lush, ripe tomatoes, green tomatoes are the basis for some good stuff, including my family’s favorite, chow chow.
Fast growing vegetables: greens
Arugula
The narrow, spicy blades of arugula — also known as rocket — are another one of the fastest growing vegetables you can plant. Sow them thickly in the ground or in a container and snip off what you need to add extra flavor to your salads. We like to add it to pizza hot out of the oven.
This is one of those great vegetable garden gifts that keeps on giving. Plant now and in 60 days you’ll have big stems that you can cut as you need them. Earlier than that, you’ll be able to snip off some of the green leaves.
Green onions
Mildly flavored green onions are not necessarily a particular variety of onion, but rather the result of when they’re harvested. Any type of onion can be harvested when they’re young and used as green onions. Plant onions from seed or simply stick the cut off roots from your latest bunch of green onions in the ground. In a month or so you’ll be able to snip off what you need.
Lettuce
Opt for leaf lettuce varieties and you can start harvesting in about a month, and continue doing so for weeks. Grow it in containers to keep the slugs at bay.
Spinach
As soon as a spinach plant’s rosette has half-dozen leaves or so, you can begin harvesting. Use this technique to allow the spinach to keep growing so you can harvest continually.
Bok choi
This Chinese cabbage has dark green leaves and big white ribs. It’s commonly used in kimchi, but great added to stir fries, too. Plant it now and you’ll be harvesting this fast growing vegetable in 30 days. You can begin harvesting the outer leaves as soon as they mature.
One the basil plants reach 6-8″ high, you can start harvesting leaves for adding to soups, sandwiches, and Italian dishes. A half-dozen basil plants will net enough leaves to make and freeze pesto to keep you in green goodness throughout the winter.
Choosing the fastest growing vegetables for your garden means that even if you’re starting late, you can still harvest a crop this year!
Originally published in June 2016, this post has been updated.
Aloha! I’m Kris Bordessa, 
How do you know when to harvest Red Giant Mustard Cabbage? They grew very large leaves looking like a very large romaine. I didn’t think they would grow so well and now I don’t know how I should eat or cook them, any suggestions and advice? Also, when to harvest long purple eggplant and baby bok choy?
Thank you
Greens can be harvested young without any ill effects. I imagine they’ll be more tender when they’re young?
I loved your article! I just had a conversation with my sister yesterday and I was exclaiming over the Trail of tears black beans I finally cooked and ate from last year. So good! I was bemoaning that there was no way I planted enough of them this year, and my sister said, why not throw them in the ground now? I may get lucky and get a harvest! So, I will, figuring I will tuck them anywhere they have something to climb on. Thanks for the encouragement!
I hope you get a bonus harvest!
Last summer I bought 2-24″x24″ plastic pots on a closeout without any idea what I would use them for. I live in central WA state in the high desert. I love my salad garden in early spring, but no luck in the hot, dry summer, so this year I planted it in the big planters. A Tiny Tom grape tomato in the center (and like spokes on a wheel) 4 kinds of leaf lettuce, pak choi, and spinach, in one, arugala, Greek and Genovese Basil in the other. They sit under my patio cover so they catch the early morning sun and are shaded for the rest of the day. Fresh Salad everyday.
I’m Starting a new Garden Please Assist with the layout and tips to make it successful
I am so excited for all the veggies to be ready. I may add radishes now that I know they grow fast, I thought it was too late. Thanks for the tip
This information is very nice, but I live in Florida and our growing seasons are different. It would be nice if you could put info in there for us in the south
Like Sheryl, I, too, did not realize you could actually plant later and still have a nice yield.
You’re giving me hope. This year’s garden has been a wash so far. Seedlings carried away by weeks of heavy rain, plants eaten by deer and rabbits, some rows have only one surviving vegetable plant. A lone broccoli looks mighty sad. I’ll keep replanting, although last night’s tornado watch and flash flood warnings were pretty discouraging…
I don’t have a garden but just up the road a farmer from me, a farmer has an unmanned produce stand. The veggies are in coolers with prices already marked. I put the money in the slot of the money box and take the veggies I paid for. Tonight we had a salad of fresh from-the-farm swiss chard, kale and lettuce that tasted so much better than grocery store greens.
Love your pictures, but I can only dream of planting these things in southern Arizona right now. Our farmer’s market carries totally different produce than more temperate climes. However, you can envy us in the winter when we can grow lettuce and tomatoes outside all winter.
I bought what I thought was climbing beans at the market, put up the metal climbing structure and waited. They don’t climb! So, encouraged by your post, I will now plant seeds in between the non-climbing variety.
That’s they way – outsmart the garden. 😉
I had no idea things could sprout up and grow so fast! I so wish I had my own vegetable garden. My dad grew one when I was growing up and it was always so special to be able to pick our salads and other veggies right from the garden.
Do you have room for a simple container garden, Sheryl? Even a pot on a balcony will net salad for a couple of months!
We planted and are enjoying French Breakfast radishes and bumper crop of tomatoes from just one ‘super tomato plant’! The ‘currant’ tomatoes are just beginning to show up – not sure why they took so long to start producing…The spinach and lettuce did great and its over with for now…letting some bolt to get our own seeds. We have eggplant almost ready to harvest and the green beans are just beginning to show up…I love our garden!
Sonia, is “Super Tomato Plant” the variety? I’d be curious to know what you’re growing to get a bumper crop!