To get a jump-start on your garden and grow some fast-growing, cold-tolerant plants you're going to want to try out some radishes, turnips, sugar snap peas, kale and spinach.
Fall and Winter LEAFY GREENS
A beautiful sampling of some of the leafy greens you can grow in your fall and winter garden, including different varieties of kale, spinach, lettuce, chicory, and even wild chickweed! Spinach is a very fast-growing, cool weather vegetable.
Radishes. One of the fastest-growing vegetable plants you can grow is radish. Some types are ready to eat in as little as 3 weeks from seeding. They are a cool-season vegetable, meaning they do best in spring or fall, before or after the heat of summer.
Mustard greens are another cool-season crop that is ready to harvest in only an incredible 20 days! The greens will turn bitter in the warm weather, so plant them in the spring with another planting in fall. Mustard greens are not as tolerant of the cold as kale or collard greens, but they will survive a light frost.
Bamboo is the world's fastest-growing plant, shooting out of the ground at an astonishing four centimeters per second. At this rate, certain bamboo species can grow 91 centimeters (about 35 inches) in a single day. If you thought that was impressive, get ready because we've only scratched the surface.
Arugula. Also known as rocket, arugula is somewhat frost tolerant and it tends to self-seed once you've planted it once. Germination is a swift 3 to 4 days and harvest within 30 days of planting the seed. Soil Type: Loamy and well-draining with a neutral pH of 6 to 7.
Ornamental kale and cabbage are some of the most popular winter annual plants. They lend a completely different texture to a winter landscape bed. Once the plants are hardened by cooler night temperatures they can survive most cold winters.
Radishes are one of the fastest-growing vegetables, taking just three to four weeks to reach harvest time. They are also exceptionally easy to grow. They can be grown in pots as well and sprout within just 3-4 days.
These cold-weather champs are kale, spinach and collards. Other hardy vegetables include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, English peas, kohlrabi and leeks. Hardy root crops are radishes and turnip, which also yields some greens from the tops. Other hardy greens include kale, mustard greens and collards.
SNOWDROPS (Galanthus nivalis)
True to their name, these early-blooming bulbs often emerge while snow is still on the ground to provide a breath of fresh air for winter-weary gardeners. In mild winters, snowdrops can flower as early as late January, but February or March is more common.
The general rule of thumb for planting a winter vegetable garden in Zones 7 to 10 is to plant during October. In Zone 6, get plants in the ground in late September. Finesse the timing with resources from your local extension office.
The most vigorous growth of plants will be in the summer when the sun is up and out the longest. During winter, the sun is neither as high in the sky, nor in the sky for as long as it is in the summer. For your plants, that means less light. For some plants, this may trigger dormancy.
Bamboo is a fast-growing grass with a hollow stem. Not only that, but it actually holds the Guinness World Record for fastest growing plant!
Agave Americana Blooms Once Every Hundred Years
It's also known as a century plant because it only blooms once every 100 years (roughly) and then dies. But, because Raleigh gets more rain than the plant's usual home in the high elevations of Northern Mexico, the Century Plant is blooming after only thirty years.
Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is a running species that grows up to 3 feet a day. Other varieties of bamboo might be much smaller in stature. But don't be fooled, their running roots can be incredibly vigorous.
American agave plants are known for their fairly fatalistic life cycles: live, die, repeat. After blooming, the plants are expected to die shortly thereafter, usually leaving behind clones of themselves in the form of seeds.
What are some fast-growing indoor plants? Some fast-growing indoor plants include Aloe Vera, Snake Plant, Lucky Bamboo, Jade Plant, Wandering Jew, Peace Lily, Spider Plant, Fiddle Leaf Fig, Maidenhair Fern, Chinese Money Plant, Pothos, Velvet Plant, Dumb Cane, and English Ivy.
Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are some of the fastest-growing fruits. They produce the fastest fruiting the second year, compared to blueberries that can take three to five years before producing berries. Fruits generally take longer to mature than vegetables, but some are faster than others.