10 Fast-Growing Vegetables for Beginners

My desire to grow my own vegetables doesn’t seem to be a great combination with my desire to see results fast. However, these fast-growing vegetables are good enough for me and my impatience and they’re perfect for beginner gardeners.

Patience hasn’t been one of my biggest strengths, and while it was supposed to get better with age, somehow I feel the opposite. I’m always in a hurry. And I know nature doesn’t hurry, yet everything is accomplished (thanks, Lao Tzu), but I still want to speed things up.

Whenever I plant something, I expect it to have its first set of leaves the next day. And I go and check every hour, as if it’s a ritual. By the end of the week, I want to have a fully formed vegetable and use it in a salad.

But unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way! Who knew (I guess Lao)?

In fact, in my experience, if things grow too quickly, they don’t turn out well. They’re immature and unusable.

Still, there are some super healthy easy and fast-growing vegetables that you can harvest within 2 months, starting from seed or bulb. My favorite are radishes, because they’re the fastest and I had much success with them. Also, because you can eat the bulbs and the greens.

10 Easiest and Fastest Vegetables to Grow

1. Radishes. Plant in loose soil and water consistently and you will harvest within 30 days. The best time to plant is in spring (March-May) or for fall – late August and September.
2. Leaf lettuce. You can grow lettuce within 40-50 days from seed, the best time to plant is again in spring (March-May) or for fall – late August and September.
3. Spinach. It grows well in cool weather and even in containers, it’s important to water consistently. You can plant spinach in March for spring or in late August for fall harvest, which should happen within 50 days.
4. Green onions aka scallions. This is probably my second favorite vegetable to grow, especially from bulbs, because I can see results within two weeks. You can even use scraps to regrow green onions. Best time to plant is March-May for spring or August/September for fall harvest (within 20-30 days)
5. Green garlic. I know it’s not super popular, but I LOVE green garlic – growing it and eating it. You can use it in soups, stews, bakes or even in salads if you’re brave and want to stay healthy. Takes the same time to grow as the green onions (20-30 days), with the best time to plant the garlic cloves in March for spring or late August for fall harvest.
6. Arugula. The best salad green, arugula, takes around 20-40 days to grow from seeds, with best months to plant again – March (spring) and August (for fall). I actually haven’t taken mine out, I cut it back prior to winter and it grows back in spring along with additional seedlings from the seeds that fall from the plant.
7. Bok Choy. I haven’t had success with bok choy yet, but I planted a few seeds last October for the first time. The caterpillars nibbled a bit too much and it got too cold quickly. However, according to the instructions on the package, bok choy aka pak choy would be harvest-ready within 45 days, with best time to plant in April for spring or August/September for fall.
8. Turnips. As with radishes, you can eat both – greens and roots. Plant in April for spring / late August for fall and harvest within 60 days.
9. Bush Beans. Super productive and easy to grow with harvest time in 45-60 days. We’re getting into the warmer months, so plant May-July every 2-3 weeks for a continuous harvest.
10. Zucchini. This vegetable needs a ton of space, but it’s also very productive. You can plant May-June and harvest within 55 days.

Tips for Beginner Gardeners

• Plant in a sunny spot: Most veggies need 6+ hours of sun.
• Use good soil: A mix of compost and potting soil works great.
• Label: This will help you track what’s growing and when to harvest (otherwise if something doesn’t work – you won’t really remember)
• Water regularly: All of these vegetables like consistent moisture, this is especially important when there’s no rain or if growing in containers.
• Perfect for containers: Most of these vegetables are perfect for small spaces, especially the leafy greens, garlic and onions, as well as the beans.
• Harvesting: The beauty of most of these plants (with the exception of the ones you pull out – turnips and radishes) is that you can just cut what you need for a salad, leave the plant and it will grow new leaves. I do this with everything, but it’s important to harvest the outer leaves (for the leafy greens), you do not want to take out “the heart” – the new leaves.
• For root vegetables, make sure to plant seeds every 2 weeks to have continuous harvest.

I hope you got some inspiration for your own vegetable garden from this list. These fast-growing vegetables are perfect to plant with kids, too – they get super excited when they see the plants grow quickly and even more excited to harvest!

I guess we’re all kids.