Where are you located? For many areas it's running a bit late in the season to start from seed.

You might try squash, pumpkin, cucumbers...

Snap or sugar peas are quick bloomers and aren't too needy. A bag of good soil, a trellis...and you're in business. They are awesome right off the vine and look cute growing on the trellis (but I'm partial to vines). Good luck.

daikon is a lot of fun. germinates like the weed it is, and gives you huge roots in no time. It is probably best planted in August. Right now, if you want a crop before you go back to college, bush beans are a good bet.

In most of the US you can still get a good harvest from snap beans if you sow pretty soon! I love watching pole beans climb a sturdy twine trellis--you can almost watch them wrap themselves around; for me that counts as 'fun'! And you could plant green, yellow and purple types for a lovely mixed harvest.

Thanks! I'm located near Dallas, Texas. Zone 8a. It's getting pretty toasty here, as you can imagine. :) I've heard a lot of good things about beans! Are there any specific variety that y'all prefer more than others? (I know, I had to put the y'all in there. :)

I'd settle on whatever kind you can still find seeds for this late in the season.

Forget about the peas.....it's far too late in your location for those.

Toss out a bag of black eyed peas. You'll need to keep the dry bean watered but they make a fun summer cover crop. You can let them dry on the vine and harvest dry beans in the fall/winter.

if you like pesto, how about a pot of basil? I'm growing pole beans for the second year. Bush beans are great, I like the filet types the best, but one you get one good picking, they are usually done. Last year I let the pole beans dry for dried beans (and to save some for this year's planting) but they were also good picked young as fresh beans.

Probably too hot for planting snap beans in Dallas already, but anything in the cow pea family like the suggested black eyed peas should still do well in the heat.

Same climate as you heat wise. 5 days ago we planted Okra. It's up! Radishes, coming up! What still has to sprout are the black eyed peas, eggplant, pumpkins, and watermelon. It's too hot for tomatoes here, but we'll do a crop of those in September.

Edited to say I just walked down the hill to check the garden and two pumpkin and two crowder peas are up now too! New babies!!

najanajaking, I don't mind spicy radishes. In fact, the ones I am using from the grocery are so bland it's almost not worth it. We also grow jalapenos and walking onions. They are spicy too! I guess a little rigged shade cloth over the radishes could cool them down a little. They aren't big plants, so probably not hard to do for someone that isn't into spicy radishes.

Okra... makes really nice flowers too.

Nothing really fun about starting seeds in June outside in Dallas. Okra, eggplant, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes would still work.

I think that July is the recommended time to start Bok Choy from seed too, if I recall correctly from my seed starting book.

Oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention long beans! Even if it's too hot where you live to grow regular pole beans, you should still be able to grow long beans without a problem. They are cowpea relatives, so they love the heat. They climb trellises and set loads of long tasty beans that are great cut up into bite-sized lengths and stir-fried. (But are nasty if steamed?? I don't know why? But that's beside the point.)

I got my seeds from Home Depot this year; they were from Burpee's "Asian" line and for some reason they were calling them "Asparagus Bean." I've never heard anyone else call them that. I'm going to order "Chinese Green Noodle" from Evergreen next year.