20 Leafy Greens That Grow in 45 Days or Less

If your summer dance card is so full that gardening is impossible, you may want to consider a quick growing spring garden.  There are tons of leafy greens that grow to edible maturity in under 45 days, and since they are cool weather crops, you’ll be done with your gardening season long before you are loading up the camp gear and heading for the hills.  Best of all, almost all of them will tolerate and thrive in containers, so you don’t have to have a designated garden spot all year long.

Here’s a quick list to get you started {I am including several different varieties of the same plants, because they all come with their own unique flavors and qualities}:

1. Arugula Rocket Salad.  Arugula tends to be on the spicier side {think:  cracked pepper}.  It adds a little bite to your salads, and will perform under pretty cold circumstances.
2. Arugula Wild Rocky.  Fair warning:  anytime you see “wild” and arugula together, you know things are going to get spicy.
3. Early Beet Wonder.  Think beet greens on this one.  While the actual beet will be ready around 48 days, the greens will be ready for harvesting long before that.
4. Bok Choy Toy Choy.  This is fantastic for stir fry.  It adds a little crunch to your taco salads too.
5. Broccoli Rabb Rapini.  I think broccoli raab is totally under-appreciated.  It provides super tasty greens, along with small florets.
6. Collards Georgia Southern.  Collards can be picked as needed, which means they will give  you a pretty steady crop.  The leaves are great sauteed in butter.
7. Dwarf Blue Kale.  Ah kale, my old foe.  While it is not my favorite veggie of all time, it does pack a nutritional punch that is pretty unrivaled.  It looks good in containers as well, so there’s that.
8. Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce.  This is probably the easiest stuff on the planet to grow.  Nothing rivals homegrown lettuce for your salads.
9. Oak Leaf Lettuce.  This is one of my favorite crops to grow as an ornamental edible.  It adds green {and red, depending on the blend} to your pots and containers, but tastes like a mild lettuce in salad.
10. Mesclun Asian Salad Greens.  This is the gourmet stuff you spend a fortune for in the store.  They are crazy easy to grow in containers, and can withstand a pretty cold temperatures, so start them on a covered front or back patio and you’ll likely be munching on lettuce in March.
11. Mesclun Chef’s Medley.  Pretty much the same as above, with a slightly different blend of greens.
12. Microgreens.  These are all the rage in high end restaurants, which makes me laugh, because they take about a week to grow.  They are really tasty added to salads and sandwiches–they also make a really pretty garnish.  This particular blend includes:  beet greens, cabbage, kohlrabi, pak choi, and swiss chard.
13. Florida Broadleaf Mustard.  While these won’t reach FULL maturity until after 45 days, they can be picked as needed while they are small.  I personally think they taste better in their “baby” form anyway.
14. Mustard Mizuna.  This is a more peppery variety of mustard, but it’s done in about a month.  It’s best mixed in with other greens, to kind of temper the flavor.
15. Mustard Ruby Streaks.  These are more pretty than anything.  They are red, and look fan-freakin-tastic in containers.  They are pretty dern spicy, so they are best mixed with other things.  They do add a lot of visual interest to your plate, though, if you are into that sort of thing.
16. Radish.  Okay, not only will the radish be ready in about a month, but the leaves are edible too.  There are tons of varieties, so find which blows your hair back and go nuts.
17. Spinach.  Like radish, there are tons of varieties that all offer different flavors and textures.  They are nutritional powerhouses, like kale, but with a much, much milder flavor.  You can saute it, eat it fresh, or toss it into smoothies.
18. Swiss Chard.  Swiss chard is totally under-utilized in the world of nutrition.  It rivals kale, looks great in containers, and tastes good to boot.  Most packages will tell you it’s not ready for 50 days, but baby swiss chard can be picked as needed, and actually has a much better flavor than its grown-up counterpart.
19. Turnip Greens.  Turnip greens can be picked as needed, though picking them might affect the size of the actual turnip.  If you are growing them in early spring as greens, though, who cares if it affects the turnip.  They are great sauteed or chopped up in soups and stir fry.
20. Garden cress.  These usually get overlooked, because they are packaged as an herb, but they leaves are fantastic added to a bed of greens.  You can even grow them in a little pot on a window sill indoors.

Now go grow you some greens, you health-nut, you.

~Mavis