Do you feel like you just want to maximize your garden by growing fast veggies first and then planting slower-growing ones afterward? If your answer is positive, then we have a whole list of the fastest-growing veggies that will get you started!
Fast-growing vegetables are a great way to maximize your yields. Since it’s easy to choose varieties and get them producing quickly, we have made the list for you, and your job is to choose which ones would you like to have in your garden!
Planting fast-growing vegetables
Fast-growing vegetables are perfect for spring, summer, and fall succession planting. Succession planting is simply following one vegetable with another so that you can grow as much food as possible. Bonus – keeping the garden productive means less space for weeds to grow. So, after early crops like peas and spinach are harvested in the May and June garden, they’re followed up with new sowings of quick-growing vegetables like bush beans, baby beets, and summer lettuce.
For succession planting, especially as the summer turns to autumn, it’s important to figure out if you have enough time to grow and mature a crop for harvest. For this, you need two pieces of information; 1) the days to maturity for your desired crop and 2) how many days you have before your first expected frost. To find the days to maturity, read the descriptions in seed catalogs and on seed packets carefully. For example, ‘Red Sails’ leaf lettuce takes 27 days from seed to harvest for a baby crop or 55 days for full-sized heads. Once you know the days to maturity, calculate how many days you have left until the first average frost day to check that you still have enough time to grow the crop.
With fast-growing vegetables, you don’t need a long season to grow a heavy harvest. I plant these quick crops throughout spring, summer, and fall in my garden, seeding whenever there is an open space in the garden. No garden space? No problem as you can grow speedy vegetables in raised beds, containers, or fabric bags on sunny decks and patios. Be sure to add some compost to the soil between successive crops to encourage healthy growth.
Here’s our list for best fast-growing veggies for any garden 🙂
Spinach
Spinach was one of the first things I ever tried growing. I did so because of how fast it grew and how simple it was to grow.
Basically, you directly sow the seeds into good quality dirt. Then you’ll need to water and wait. Before you know it, in about 4-6 weeks, you’ll have fresh spinach.
Spinach can be a nice addition to any salad, or you could prepare the spinach fresh like in this recipe.
Spinach can be grown in Zones 3-9, and the leaves can already be harvested 6 weeks after planting.
Radishes
Radishes are probably one of the fastest plants you can grow. They are also super simple to grow as well.
If you’d like to try and grow your own vegetables, radishes are excellent fast-growing vegetables to start with. You’ll directly sow these seeds in quality soil.
Radishes can be harvested in about 22-50 days and can be grown in zones 2-10
Beets
Beets are one of those vegetables that you either like or you don’t. But even if you don’t like the actual beet itself, you may enjoy the greens that come from the plant.
So either way, it is a great vegetable to grow if you’d like to have a harvest in a hurry. It is good to grow in the spring or when we are heading into fall because they can withstand a little heat, but don’t like the super-hot temperatures we often experience during summer.
Beets can be harvested in around 50 days, however, the greens can be harvested from 30 days. They grow well in zones 2-10.
Bok Choy
Bok Choy is a fun plant. It looks fun, and it is even fun to say its name.
But it is also a great plant to grow because it can produce a mature harvest in around 30 days. If that isn’t a super-fast plant, I’m not sure what is.
If you are looking for something different to grow that will produce a fast harvest, then you should definitely consider Bok Choy.
Bok Choy grows well in zones 4-7 and individual leaves can be harvested after 21 days, or the whole head 45-60 days after planting.
Broccoli
I love broccoli. As a kid, it fascinated me because it looked like tiny trees. As an adult, I love it because I can put cheese on it, butter on it, or seasonings and enjoy it again and again.
But as someone that tries to produce most of their own food, I love broccoli because it likes colder weather. It is refreshing to be able to grow something green when the temperatures are still nippy outside.
So if you love broccoli too, then know that you can grow it and have it ready for harvest in around 60 days. That is how long it takes for it to make mature heads.
However, you could enjoy smaller heads of broccoli even sooner than that. It is all about your preference.
Grown in zones 3-10, Broccoli can be harvested after day 58, depending on the variety.
Green Onions
Green onions are another really versatile plant. You plant onions as bulbs. The bulbs take around 6 months to produce full-size onions.
But you can get green onion stalks at around 3-4 weeks. They taste delicious as a garnish for soups or to be added to stir-fry as well.
So if you want something green, fresh, and packed with onion flavor, then know that you can have all of that in less than a month.
Green onions grow in zones 3-9 and can be ready in 20-30 days from planting.