It’s that time of year again, when your green thumb gets the itch. You want to grow your own veggies, load a pretty wicker basket with freshly harvested garden goodies. But you’re not the most patient gardener, and you waited until summer’s half over. Good news, it’s not too late! The following plants will give you the makings for salads and side dishes in no time, and all of them can be grown in pots or in the ground.
Radishes
This crispy peppery vegetable wins the title of fastest growing. It goes from dirt to serving dish in under a month, usually around 24 days. Perfect for impatient kids who want to watch their gardens grow ‘right now’. Add radishes to salad, slaw, soup, or carve into pretty rosettes for garnish.
Growing instructions: Plant radish seeds 1/2 inch deep. When they start to grown, thin to 2 inches apart. Water them moderately and harvest after about 24 days.
Yellow Squash and Zucchini
Just a couple of these plants will produce A LOT of veggies, which you can cook up a ton of different ways—sauteed, fried, or even baked in desserts like chocolate zucchini bread— or freeze to eat this winter. They mature in around 57 days, or you can pick fresh squash even sooner if you opt to purchase started plants instead of seeds. (Go for the bush varieties as opposed to vines to save space)
Growing instructions: plant seeds 1 inch deep, three feet apart in the garden or one to a pot.
Beets
This super veggie gives you double the harvesting fun, since you can eat the sweet root in as little as 45 days PLUS the greens can be used after only 2 to 3 weeks. Beet roots are delicious roasted, then eaten as a side dish or paired with goat cheese, salad greens, avocado, and pistachios in the best salad you’ve ever tasted.
Growing instructions: Plant seeds 1/2 inch deep and thin to about 3 inches apart.
Green Onions
Who doesn’t love the fresh, crisp flavor of green onions? And great news, these are easy to grow even if your only garden space is a window sill.
Growing instructions: Sow onion seed under 1/4 inch of soil and thin to 3 inches apart. Plants emerge after 1 or 2 weeks. Opt for setting bulbs for quicker harvests.
Sprouts
You don’t even dirt to grow these and they’re ready to eat in a week! Mung beans are the first type that come to mind, but you have a ton of different options including broccoli, alfalfa, and chia. Sprouts are delicious in salads, sandwiches, and stir-fries.
Growing instructions: Put a few tablespoons of sprouting seeds in a glass quart jar with a little water and over the top with cheesecloth held in place with a rubber band. Rinse the seeds ever few days.
Lettuce
Lettuce is the base of most salads and a must have on sandwiches, so if you grow anything else, plant a few pots. I avoid the iceberg type and go for leafy lettuce in a variety of colors and textures. It can be harvested at different stages, but for the results at a long growing season, stagger plantings every two weeks.
Growing instructions: sow lettuce seed under 1/4 inch of fine soil. When it starts to grow, think so plants stand a few inches apart; no need to waste anything, just use the young plants you pulled in salads.
Okra
Okra is a Southern favorite. This plants looks cool sports pretty flowers before the veggies form. Most varieties make pods in about 50 days. Whether you like your okra fried or in gumbo, give this stunning plant a try.
Growing instructions: Plant 3 or 4 okra seeds one inch deep, in pots or rows spaced a yard apart. Think to the strongest plant. Plants emerge after 2 to 3 weeks.
Spinach
Popeye’s favorite grows well in the ground but looks really cool in terracotta pots. Plant plenty of spinach, at least three pots, since it shrinks when it cooks. Young leaves are delicious in salads, and spinach can be wilted and cooked at baby spinach size or larger. Great as a side dish. My favorite way to eat spinach for breakfast or lunch is sauteed in a little olive oil with some chopped onion or garlic, and then topped with a poached egg. Yummy!
Growing instructions: Sow seeds under 1/2 inch of soil and water moderately. Thin plants to 3 to 5 inches apart after the second leaves appear. These grow equally well in sun or shade.
Mustard Greens
These healthy greens are as delicious as they are good for you. Use young leaves in salad or grow to maturity to cook as you would spinach or any other type of greens.
Growing instructions: cover seeds with 1/2 inch of soil and keep well watered.
Fresh Herbs
For the perfect year-round indoor chef’s garden, grow pots of basil, chives, parsley, and rosemary on your kitchen window sill. Buy these plants at a garden store or in the produce section of your local grocery. Pinch or snip fresh leaves to put in everything from eggs to entrees.
There’s nothing like the feeling you get serving fresh veggies you’ve grown yourself. The only that compares is watching your young children plant, water, pick, and eat things they’ve grown with their own little hands.
