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8 Fast-Growing Crops for a Late-Summer Edible Garden

If your dream garden is still bare ground in July, don't despair. While spring planting is standard, many vegetables and herbs thrive when started in midsummer heat. Here are eight options to get your garden producing quickly.

1. Beans

Snap beans love heat and some varieties harvest in under two months. Bush types grow fastest; look for 'Blue Lake', 'Emerite', 'Provider', 'Purple Crop', 'Tendercrop', 'Topcrop', and 'Triumphe de Farcy'. Yellow wax beans include 'Goldencrop' and 'Resistant Cherokee'.

Bean plants

2. Cucumbers

Heat-loving cucumbers sprawl in sunny spots. Quick-crop varieties: 'Burpee Beauty', 'Dasher II', 'Diamont', 'Raider', 'Slice Master'. For pickling: 'County Fair', 'National Pickling', 'Regal'.

Cucumber vines Laara Copley-Smith Garden & Landscape Design

3. Squash

Summer squash explodes from seed to harvest. Choose crookneck, pattypan, or zucchini for shortest maturity.

Squash plants ecocentrix landscape architecture

4. Herbs

Most culinary herbs are quick-growing, heat-tolerant annuals. Plant a formal herb wheel or free-form design; they're drought-tolerant, needing less water in summer.

Herb garden wheel Bachman's Landscape Design - Tom Haugo

5. Tomatoes and Peppers

Starting from seed now won't yield fruit before frost. Instead, buy well-developed transplants from nurseries. Inspect carefully and give them space to see what they produce.

Tomato and pepper transplants

6. Radishes

Traditionally cool-season, radishes tolerate summer heat if planted in partial shade. They grow fast; succession planting yields tangy salad additions through fall.

Radishes Jocelyn H. Chilvers

7. Carrots

Carrots can survive summer if not excessively hot. Site in midday shade or containers. Quick varieties: 'Bolero', 'Little Finger', 'Nantes', 'Nelson', 'Touchon'.

Carrots Laara Copley-Smith Garden & Landscape Design

8. Beets

Plant beets where leaves get sun but soil stays cool. They'll be ready by early fall at the latest.

Beets Jocelyn H. Chilvers

Or Wait for a Cool-Season Garden

In July and August, start cool-season crops for fall/winter harvest. Kale thrives when sown mid to late summer. Swiss chard can be started late July, harvesting into winter in mild climates. Late July is also ideal for turnips and rutabagas — they need time to mature.

Beets growing Paintbox Garden