Quick Growing Vegetables

The key to starting a small vegetable garden from scratch is to plant vegetables that grow quickly as eating home grown food within weeks of planting it is truly the best motivation to grow more.

But it can’t just be any old quick growing vegetables.

Because lots of the vegetables that grow really fast are so obscure you’re never ever – I promise you – going to eat them.

And most of the rest – like radishes and cress – are are not exactly a substantial meal are they? And on their own they will never get us hooked on our new vegetable garden.

But what then are the best quick growing vegetables to plant?

Well, I’ve got five of the fastest growing vegetables for you here that really are worth growing. These vegetables are super healthy and will genuinely save you money with quick crops you can keep growing through spring, summer and autumn and even into winter.

And best of all, these quick growing vegetables are all super easy to grow. Especially with some of the clever tricks I am going to share with you here.

So to start your vegetable garden fast, check out these quick growing vegetable tips and get planting …

5 Quick Growing Vegetables

1. Super Speedy Salad Leaves

Salad leaves are the quickest of quick growing vegetables and perhaps the most useful.

Simply sow small quantities of seeds from packets of mixed salad leaves in a couple of small pots on a sunny window sill or table and you will have food in less than a month.

You can have a continuous crop of salad leaves if you:

Sow another pot each week for the next month.
Keep soil moist through misting rather than watering as shoots fragile.
Harvest your first pot after 4 weeks by cutting the leaves about an inch above the soil so the leaves quickly regrow.

Whole lettuces won’t grow as quickly but are still pretty fast and if you pick varieties that are good to cut and come again you can keep a continuous crop coming. I’ve just planted the wonderfully named Drunken Woman 😉

2. How To Grow Spinach Fast

Spinach is another super useful quick growing vegetable. You can start it in spring and keep it going through autumn.

And it’s a brilliantly immune boosting veg for all of us right now you can blend into quick green soup, cheese sauce, pasta sauce and even berry smoothies for picky eaters.

The key trick to growing spinach fast is to grow it as a cut-and-come-again crop for lovely tender young leaves.

So ignore all those pictures of enormous spinach plants. The moment your spinach leaves are the size of a small hand you can start harvesting them.

And if you keep cutting the leaves to eat fresh every day or so those little spinach plants will keep growing and growing unbelievably quickly.

To start planting read these tips on how to grow spinach which cover everything you need to know for a quick crop.

3. Growing Collard Greens Fast From Scraps

This next trick for growing quick vegetables is one of my absolutely favourites.

Simply save the bottoms of collard greens or spring greens bought at the store or market and pop them in a bowl of water.

They will very quickly grow roots and once they have you can plant them out in your vegetable bed or pots and within a month you will have a crop of tasty young collard greens.

I grow these collard greens in just five weeks last year from scraps …

And harvesting them like the spinach they then quickly grew again and kept growing all summer long. How good is that?

To start planting your crop read these tips on growing collard & spring greens from scraps. Again they cover everything you need to know as a beginner starting a vegetable garden.

4. Growing Super Food Turnips Super Fast

Turnips – who knew? – are a super food.

And they are delicious!!!

I know, I know you think you hate them, but that’s because most of us have never eaten them grown and cooked properly Italian style as cime di rapa.

The big secret is turnips grown super fast for small bulbs AND their greens are scrumptious in everything from raw salads and panini to garlicky sauces for gnocchi and fresh pasta.

You can grow turnip greens quickly in spring and autumn and even winter and they will actually feed the soil organically in your new vegetable garden.

Again, how good is that?

To start growing your turnips fast read these simple tips on growing turnips & cime di rapa.

5. Growing Young Carrots For Hormone Health

The trick to growing carrots quickly is to harvest them very young when they are at their very healthiest.

Young raw carrots – especially when grated – seem to help balance estrogen levels that out of kilter contribute to period problems, acne and more.

So to quickly grow carrots :

Choose quick growing varieties like Amsterdam Forcing
Sow little and often by marking out a row but only planting a little of the row every 2 or 3 days
Thin out as needed eating the thinnings as garnish
Within a month it will be easy to harvest day by day along the row
And as you harvest re-sow

And there you go five of the very quickest growing vegetables to start your vegetable garden with so you can enjoy cheap, healthy, home grown food on your table fast. Do bookmark or save the post for reference.

For more simple grow your own tips on starting a vegetable garden check out these posts :