Raise your hand if you’d really like to grow a tomato or eggplant or some basil, but you just sort of kind of got around to thinking about maybe growing something. Yeah, I thought there’d be a few of you out there. Well, I’m here to tell you you’re screwed. You waited too long and now it’s too late in the season for you to grow anything you’d want to eat.
Just kidding! Gather around my friends, let’s talk fruits, vegetables and herbs that you can plant at the end of June and still enjoy by the end of summer.
First, look for edibles that you can grow from seed that are naturally very fast growing. For example, you can sow most carrot seeds now and be harvesting some orange deliciousness in late August, or early September. Radishes are definitely a go. And if you’re dying to snack on some homegrown baby salad greens, knock yourself out in the seed aisle. Many herbs can be sown now too, like basil, oregano, and if you promise to get them in a pot right-this-second, dill too.
But at this point in the game, for most edibles, you’re going to have to disabuse yourself of the notion that you’ll be growing things from seeds. You don’t have time. I am, of course, assuming you live somewhere with a first frost date is in September or October and need to pick your summer vegetables by the end of August or beginning of September. If you live in Southern California, disregard this post and do pretty much whatever you want.
So, most of you need to be looking for vegetable starts at the garden center. Look for varieties of vegetables that say “60 Days” on the tag, or any number less than 60. This number indicates how many days after planting the fruit or vegetable outside it will take before you can harvest something. For example, ‘Oregon Spring’ is a well known fast growing tomato that will produce fruit in both cool and hot climates. It’s tag will say “58 Days” which hopefully means you’ll be eating tomatoes around the 19th of August.
More good news. You can pick up pretty much any herb plant you want and will have plenty of time to grow them up into nice big bushy plants. Grab sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, and keep on going until your cart is full.
So…who wants to admit to just now getting around to planting their vegetable garden? 
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*raises hand*
me…but I swear I had a good excuse lol
Great post!
Oh blast ! Thanks for the wake up call. Already end of June and I still haven’t planted out most of the tomatos and chilies I’ve painstakingly managed to grow from seed…
Thanks for the post on what can still be done … I want MORE … that’s what because I concentrated to much on tomatoes this year … really glad to hear carrots can still be planted – I have an old pea patch waiting for something to go in.
I planted tomatoes 4-5 weeks ago. I’m scared because we haven’t gotten any real heat yet and it’s almost July.
Not me. But I do still have some tumbling tomatoes needing to be potted. I.just.haven’t.gotten.to.it! But who can pass up a deal? Someone at Garden Club was practically giving them away. If these ones still fruit, then I’m going to have a lot of Cherry Tomatoes real soon! I already have 3 hanging baskets bursting with tomato’s & flowers.
Darn you Californians and your magical growing season. Sigh. I’d love to do this all year round!
Our weather in the PNW hasn’t been consistenly nice enough to plant basil, but things are starting to warm up a bit (finally).
Yep, this would be me. I went for the baby plants, didn’t want the heartbreak of failing seeds. Loving your blog! Am telling my friends about it.
We just planted our lettuce about a week ago
Good thing it rarely gets warmer than 64 degrees where we live. Sometimes I’m sad I can’t grow warm weather veggie (it’s supposed to get down to 48 tonight). Not too sad though. I’m okay with buying them and save my space for succulents 
We started our seedlings back in March. The garden is in full growing mode now!
Gosh, I wish I would have had that informiaton earlier!
It was an amazing nice spring in northern Minnesota! My backyard is in full bloom! Beans and peas are flowering. It is going to be a wonderful gardening summer!!!
My friends and I had every intention of finding a garden space this spring, we even started seedlings in mid-March. Our own laziness (and lack of a tiler) led us to slack until this week when we were finally able to plant our darling little seedlings! I didn’t get around to planting my herbs until late May, but it was still dropping below 32 at night here in the mountains of WV…better late then never!
I Did! I planted last Friday some lettuce and tomatoes! I’m in a small dorm room and my windows dont get much light so i’ve had little sucess with the Tomatoes, im doubting they will grow. BUT! My lettuce ( a romaine and leaf variety ) Took Off! after only 3 days i had some little lettuce sprouting out of the potting soil and now theres a great bit of them growing. heres a photo if anyone cares <3 http://tinyurl.com/2f8jprc
Samantha–That’s so awesome that you’re growing edibles while in college! Looks like they’re off to a great start.
Hello – I am originally from Germany where we plant tomatoes out after 20th May, sometimes later, as we can still get frost or very cold nights until then. Thankfully first frost doesn’t actually come until late October, but the nights are too cold for the Tomatoes to ripen (did you know, they need warm nights?) after the 15th of September or so. My parents harvest tomatoes from the end of July until the end of August and 5 tomato plants give them tons! Next summer I will try and grow some container tomatoes. My garden is north facing and has lots of shade, but right at the end of the garden there is a sheltered spot that gets sunlight from 2pm until late evening and it has a brick wall behind it which gives off heat during the evening. Should be perfect. I am reading up on all your pages for container tomatoes. Thanks for that.
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