Being a good gardener requires many traits: a good eye, diligence, discipline, a willingness to get your hands dirty, selflessness, and patience. If you are anything like me, it is that last one that is going to prove to be a problem!
As soon as the season arrives, I’m already ready to enjoy my harvest and the fruits of my hard work. How unfortunate, then, that so many veggies take several months to mature. The wait is intolerable!
But it doesn’t have to be if you choose your plants carefully. Some vegetables, including many popular ones, can go from seed to maturity and be ready for harvest in just 30 days. I’ll tell you about 15 of the best ones below.
Radishes
Radishes are known for their versatility, crisp texture, and bracing, peppery flavor. And whether you like them a little or a lot, you’ll love how fast-growing most varieties are. Typically, they are ready to harvest in 30 days flat, and some can be fully grown, edible, and tasty in just 3 weeks!
One of the best cool weather veggies around, if you are growing between zones 2 and 10, you’ll be in good shape and headed towards a speedy harvest.
Make your life even easier by picking super fast-growing varieties like French Breakfast, Cherry Belle, and White Icicle. As soon as the roots of any of them are about 1 inch in diameter, they are ready to pick.
Lettuce
Yet another salad leafy green on our list, but one with a tremendous amount of variety depending on the cultivar that you pick. If you are only used to iceberg, you’ve been wasting time and giving up a lot of flavor.
Try Buttercrunch and Little Gem instead. They taste great as baby leaves and are ready to harvest fast. 25 days is the average, but they might take as long as 30 in less-than-ideal conditions. Still quite quick!
Remember, you can harvest the outer leaves of multiple plants while leaving the rest to grow if you want to stagger your harvest, or you can pick the whole head and use it as is. These lettuce varieties don’t do as well in as wide a range as arugula or spinach, though: you can get by in zones as far south as 3, but they will do better in zones 4 through 9.
Spinach
One of the most nutritious, versatile, and loved leafy vegetables, it’s hard to do better than spinach when it comes to nutritional content and taste. As cooked greens, as an ingredient in soups and casseroles, or tossed in a salad, spinach is tops.
Like arugula, spinach can be harvested as baby leaves when they are anywhere from two to four inches long, depending on the variety. Check out Bloomsdale, Baby’s Leaf, and Tyee both for rapid growth and great taste. They’ll be ready to pick in 30 days, no longer.
Cool weather is, as always, preferable, and you’ll find spinach will grow rapidly and readily in zones 2 through 9.
Arugula
This beloved salad veggie has a peppery and slightly bitter taste, making it a great choice for mixed green salads or even as a sandwich topping. Many salad veggies are among the fastest-growing choices for your garden, and arugula is one of them.
Better yet, you could choose prolific, quick-growing types like Speedy or Rocket, which are ready to harvest when they are just two or three inches tall as baby greens.
You could be bringing these in in as little as 20 days, or 25 on the outside. Regardless of what type you are growing, you’ll find that arugula grows quite nicely in cool weather, particularly in zones 3 through 11.
Kale
For a few years now, kale has been hailed as, allegedly, the healthiest food that has ever been. I don’t know if I believe that, but I do believe that it grows fast and bountifully like the other greens we’ve talked about so far.
The trick is to get a baby kale variety so the young leaves won’t be quite so bitter. I especially like these in salads, but you can sauté them with good results.
Keep them cool and give them a little bit of shade, and harvest once the leaves are about 3 inches long. This usually takes about three and a half weeks in ideal conditions.
Cress
This potently peppery plant is a regional favorite in salads and on sandwiches, and it takes the crown for the fastest-growing veggie on our list: varieties like Upland and Pepper Cress can be fully formed, nutritious, and ready to pick in just 10 to 12 days! That’s amazing!
And though it’s easy to take care of, the environmental range for cress is pretty narrow: you should only expect these rapid results in zones 4 through 9, and cooler is definitely better. Outside of this range, it’ll need another couple of weeks.
Mizuna
Sometimes called Japanese mustard greens, this vibrantly colored plant is spicy and tangy, but mildly so, making it a super alternative for folks with sensitive palates.
Even better for our purposes, there are multiple types out there that have been developed for reliably rapid growth: Early Mizuna and Kyona are two exemplars.
As for time, it won’t take long given good care. 3 weeks is the norm, maybe 3 ½ weeks.
Curly Endive
Rarely encountered in North America, this salad veggie is perhaps better known to folks with an international flair as frisée. It has a crisp, slightly bitter, and almost dry taste that makes it an interesting choice for salads.
Like every other leafy vegetable we’ve already covered, this one can be grown with the express purpose of harvesting it as baby greens. The timetable is anywhere from 25 to 30 days at most, but it will only grow this fast if kept cool.
Keep the soil moist, but very well-drained; most types are highly vulnerable to root rot, and that will completely derail your plans.
Bok Choy
This Asian cabbage is terrific when boiled by itself, steamed, or used as an ingredient in lots of other dishes. Like so many other salad veggies, it loves cooler weather, and mild temperatures support rapid growth.
As long as you protect it from heat, it won’t take any longer than a month until it’s ready to be picked. Like lettuce, you can harvest just the outer leaves and let the plant continue growing.
Two of the very best cultivars for impatient gardeners are Dwarf Pak Choi and Toy Choi, both of which are special baby varieties with great flavor and tender leaves.
Mustard Greens
You might be seeing a trend here when it comes to veggies on this list, and you are correct: leafy vegetables are indeed among the fastest out there! But there’s a ton of variety in this category, and that makes them suitable for a ton of different dishes.
Case in point, mustard greens. Spicy, peppery, and crisp, they are perfect for inclusion in salads or soups, and they are a mainstay in Asian stir fries.
Check out the Red Giant type for a great pop of color and awesome flavor. Harvest when they are about 4 inches tall, typically about 30 days.
Turnip Greens
Turnips are a root veggie with a reputation for speedy growth, but they still aren’t quite speedy enough to earn a place on this list. The greens, however, are yummy and nutritious all on their own, and they typically have a spicy characteristic quite similar to the roots themselves.
Like other root veggies, ideal conditions and cool weather are what’s needed for rapid growth. If you are in zones 3 through 10 and can protect them from high soil temperatures and too much sun, they will grow like weeds! Expect to harvest the greens in 20 to 25 days.
Scallions
Scallions, or green onions, are simply immature onions harvested for their tiny bulbs and tender green stalks.
Crisp and mild, they are a delicious ingredient in soups or used as a topping or garnish on lots of other things. They’re also a cinch to grow and are typically ready well within a month. I routinely bring in a harvest at about the 3-week mark.
Keep an eye on the stalks: as a rule of thumb, once they reach 6 to 8 inches tall, they are good to go. These are a great veggie for impatient gardeners because they can grow well almost anywhere.
Beet Greens
Sadly, beets themselves just don’t grow that fast. You won’t be harvesting them for 60 days, maybe 50 days or a hair earlier if the stars align. But that’s okay because beet greens will be ready long before then, anywhere from 3 weeks to a month.
Beet greens don’t get much fanfare compared to the other veggies on our list, but they can be prepared and used in a whole host of ways and have a unique flavor and good nutritional profile. Whatever type of beets you like, don’t hesitate to try them.
Fenugreek
Typically grown as an herb, fenugreek is an important ingredient in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine, and often plays a majority role in shaping the flavor of various dishes.
There are lots of different types out there, but the only one you’re likely to have success with if you want it fast is Methi; this ubiquitous type will take only 20 days to grow, 30 at the very most.
Baby Carrots
I know too many gardeners who forget about baby carrots when growing carrots… Lots of varieties are crispy, sweet, and perfect even when quite small, with some of the very best being Parisian, Little Finger, and Adelaide.
These tiny, cute carrots will only be about 3 inches long in a month’s time, but nonetheless, they are ready to pull up and put to use in your kitchen.
Whether you want them for salads or as snacking veggies to pair with your favorite dip, these will hit the spot and you won’t have to wait long for them!
Tim is a farm boy with vast experience on homesteads, and with survival and prepping. He lives a self-reliant lifestyle along with his aging mother in a quiet and very conservative little town in Ohio. He teaches folks about security, prepping and self-sufficiency not just through his witty writing, but also in person.
Find out more about Tim and the rest of the crew here.