Hate To Wait? 12 Fast-Growing Vegetables for a Speedy Harvest
You’ve plowed the garden and planted your seeds. Now it’s the hard part—waiting for that first harvest. Garden plants range considerably in how long it takes them to grow. Some are ready to eat within a few weeks, while others take one hundred days or longer.
If you’re looking for some quick victories to keep you motivated, it’s important to plant some fast-growing produce. Not only do they make it possible to start eating from the garden as soon as possible, but they are well-suited for places with short growing seasons that don’t provide enough time to let slower produce fully ripen before winter sets in.
These twelve varieties are an excellent place to start. You’ll practically watch them grow before your eyes in real-time, ensuring there’s minimal time to wait before they end up on your plate. Best of all, most allow for multiple harvests, meaning you’ll be enjoying their bounty throughout most of the growing season.
The Rocket salad is a type of arugula that is regularly incorporated into salads and other dishes for its spicy, bitter taste. This plant was first cultivated by the Greeks and Romans and continues to be harvested by home gardeners and farmers alike.
Collard greens is a sub-species of cabbage that does not have a central head. The name ’acephela’, draws attention to this characteristic since it means ‘without a head.’ This hybrid bears a closer resemblance to its wild parent than cabbage. This nutritious’s vegetable is rich in vitamins and other essential nutrients.
The Mizuna or Mizuna is excellent as a salad ingredient. Its edible green leaves have a mild mustard flavor. The leaves are ready for harvest when they are about 10 cm tall and can be enjoyed with a bit of balsamic dressing or olive oil.
Bok choy is one of the most popular cultivated forms of Brassica rapa and its tightly clustered leaves make quite a contrast to its loose-leaved parent. It is one of East Asia’s most common leafy vegetables with a pleasant earthy and slightly spicy taste. Being winter-hardy, this plant is now popular in Northern Europe.
Beet (Beta vulgaris) provides a variety of uses for food products and garden growth. The roots are commonly consumed as nutrient-rich vegetables, the body of the sugar beet is used to make table sugar, and the leaves are harvested as a separate vegetable: chard. In 18th-Century Silesia, an area that is now part of Poland, the first-ever beet sugar extraction plant was created by a royal decree from the king.
Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is a nutritious, cool-weather crop in the cabbage family grown extensively worldwide, both commercially and in home gardens. It is eaten as a nutritious vegetable, raw or cooked, and is frequently added to salads, casseroles, or vegetable platters. Its name comes from a similar Italian word that means “the flowering crest of a cabbage.”
Common bean is one of the most widely produced cash crops in the world, with 23.6 million tons grown in 2016. China is the largest producer of the Common bean, accounting for 79% of the market share. While the is known as a staple food source, the leaves can be used to trap bedbugs and the beans are widely used in a type of fortune-telling called “favomancy”.
Cichorium intybus ‘Palla Rosa’ makes quite a contrast from its green parent since its leaves are a striking mixture of maroon and green, explaining the name ‘rosa.’ Italian chicory has a slightly bitter taste that is reduced by blanching. Its attractive color makes it a popular addition to salads, although it can also be roasted.
The green foliage of the herb Sorrel has a tangy taste with little hints of citrus. It is often used in salads or cooked like spinach. It was once considered a vegetable, but it is now seen as a wild food plant. It is usually found on cliffs and coastal dunes.
The common name of the Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes translates from German as “cabbage-turnip;” the swollen stem at the base gives the Kohlrabi the appearance of a cabbage growing out of a turnip. This plant is a common edible vegetable, sold in stores and markets. The stems and leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.
Lepidium sativum is a fast-growing, edible herb that’s referred to as the Garden cress, distinguishing it from similar plants that are also called cress. It’s genetically related to mustard and watercress, and it shares their peppery, tangy flavor. It’s commercially grown in Europe.
Field mustard (Brassica rapa) is a plant that is widely cultivated and produces oilseed. Canola oil is made from the Field mustard oilseed. Field mustard attracts white butterflies who gain nutrients from its flowers.