Plants that grow quickly have a special knack at making us feel pretty great about gardening. Speedy-growing plants are also quite a bargain. They rapidly cover up bare patches with their attractive leaves or bright flowers, creating the impression of a mature garden in just a few seasons. Pick a few from the list below, and you'll soon have a garden that makes you look like a pro, in no time.
tall annual flowers: cosmos
Unless you are growing a Giant Sunflower, it is sometimes hard to achieve high heights within a year of growing your garden. Cosmos, however, not only grow to a height of over 2 metres, but they also do so with a profusion of daisy-like petals in bright and confident colours.
flavoursome herbs: parsley
Getting to work in the garden is also getting the garden to work. For so many of us, that starts with a herb garden. Parsley is a biennial plant; that grows delicious, fragrant leaves in its first year. Most will treat it as an annual as the foliage can be woody in the second year as the plant is trying to go to seed.
nectar sources: borage
Flowers are often gratefully followed by pollinators that keep our gardens happy. Aside from Borage being a quick-growing plant to bloom, it amazingly takes just 2 minutes to refill itself with nectar (compared to some flowers that take up to 24 hours). Borage also has a long flowering period which means they keep the bees in your garden for longer.
softening trails: nasturtium
Hard wall edges of new gardens can make us feel that there is still room for the plants to grow. Nasturtium does a great job at softening these corners, trailing over the border and down with big, vibrant green edible leaves and flowers. Nasturtium also works as a trap crop for pests, keeping them away from your prized growing plants.
quick to the table: radish french breakfast
Of course, some vegetables are larger to fill a garden space, but none can beat the versatility and quick-growing nature of Radish French Breakfast. From seed to table in 3 weeks, Radishes are an ideal vegetable to master for new gardens. Radishes can be grown in garden bed gaps and sown in 2-week successions for a continuous crop.
fast perennials: rudbeckia
Rudbeckia offers a late summer and autumn display of golden flowers. When planted early in the year can grow from seed to blooms within their first year. Rudbeckia can be an impressive alternative for Echinacea lovers that otherwise will wait an extra year for flowers.
interest & intrigue: amaranth red army
A cosmopolitan annual (or short-lived perennial), Amaranth grows a deep rich display of foliage that comes into its own in late summer and early autumn. You will love the small crimson flowers that form tassel-like panicles that seem to drip from the branches in an ornamental fashion.