Cris
Which Veggies Grow Best in Containers?
So, you don’t have a ton of space to start a garden? That’s perfectly fine, you can grow food in pots inside your kitchen or on a patio. Here we are going to go over some of the Vegetables that grow great in containers for small spaces.
We’ve all been there at one point or another, where we want to garden, but can’t due to limitations of space. This is why we can get some containers, soil and seeds and still produce edible products.
Some varieties are much easier to grow in pots than others such as anything from the Nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant). Crops that grow fast like peas and beans also do well. You can grow yourself a nice salad in a pot in a windowsill even, leafy greens do very well in pots.
Advantages of growing in pots is the ability to protect plants from those late spring frosts. You can literally just bring them in overnight to keep them warm. I lost a whole raised bed garden to snow one June, it was rough starting over, just to lose it again before harvest with an early September frost. The zucchini plant I was able to save was the one in a pot, in my mud room.
Believe it or not, container gardening is becoming increasingly popular. Pretty much any vegetable will grow in a container, you just have to know what size container to use. Harvest yields may be smaller, but you get to offset that with a longer season.
Don’t forget to check your USDA hardiness zone when planning your container garden. This will help you to see when you can put pots outside, and how well they will do in unforgiving summers.
Top 10 Vegetables for Container Gardens
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1) Tomatoes
The tomato is actually a berry of the plants in the Genus Solanum, which is in the Nightshade family of plants. There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, and we all have our favorites ( mine is the yellow pear).
Tomatoes do well in larger pots, and typically do need some support. They like full sun, so don’t be afraid to stick them in the sunny patch of your patio that might be bad for other plants. Tomatoes are actually one of the best producers of fruits when grown in pots.
These tasty treats grow best in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 11 but will grow in all zones. They absolutely love water, that how the fruits are so juicy. Give them a large, well-drained pot and water them often. Be sure to bring them inside or cover them if it is going to get cold though, they will freeze if you are not careful.
2) Peppers
This is another large group of Nightshade plants with over 4,000 varieties of chili peppers in the world. You are sure to find one you prefer from the mild Bell Pepper to the super spicy Ghost Chili, to the sweet peppers that make nice lunch bag additions (my son loves them!).
These guys do best in growing zones 5- 11 but will grow everywhere just as their cousins listed previously. Peppers like warm soil, and will not tolerate frost, so set them in the sun to warm and bring them in when it’s going to get cool. Larger, well drained pots are best for these as well.
With3) Peas
Basically, there are two main types of peas, the ones where you eat the pod (the Chinese variety), and the ones you shell and eat just the seed (the English variety). Here we often argue over which one is best. I prefer the snow pea, those tender flat pods are so good when sauteed with some garlic or thrown into soups. With fairly shallow roots, these guys do really well in containers. They do love to climb though and will sprout very easily from seeds in well-drained soil. Peas grow rather fast, and if you’re not careful, they will sneak in pods every day no matter how often you harvest. Watch out for the pods that dry out and drop the seeds, you WILL get a second crop from those. Peas prefer cooler growing seasons, so plant them early in the spring. Try all of the varieties to see which one you like the best. They come in a variety of colors as well, so mix it up for a visually appealing container garden. Beans are another diverse group of healthy foods that are great to grow in containers. There are about 400 different types, and they are used in so many types of cuisines. Great source of fiber, tasty in soups, steamed, fried, or sauteed. You can eat them with or without the pod. Beans prefer full sun and well-drained soil that is more on the sandy side. They come in bush variety, or as climbers so choose which one suits your growing space the best. Do be prepared to dry them for storage if those are the varieties you choose. They will store for about three years if properly dried and stored. With such great storage ability, you can grow a different type each year to build your supply. With an adequate supply of dried beans, you can literally eat a meal from every country in the world as you expand your culinary skills. Squashes are from the Genus Cucurbita and are a diverse group of gourds. There are pumpkins, zucchini, spaghetti squash, yellow squash, patty pans, banana squash and the list just keeps going. I love all types of squash and they are so easy to grow too! I have not encountered a variety yet that did not produce, and over produce at that. You have your summer varieties that grow in more of a bush, and your winter varieties that like to climb. Be sure to have a trellis ready for those spaghetti squash, mine grew all over this last year! Squash is great as a side, grilled, baked, stuffed, made into pie, added to soups, fried or just about any way you want to prepare them. They freeze well for long storage, or you can pickle them too. Canning is best left to just the winter squashes to make pies out of. They will need a larger pot with well-drained soil. They grow well in all USDA ones, but some are frost sensitive. Start them inside about 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost, then gradually acclimate them to the outdoors. Seeds sprout quickly, but sprout to harvest is typically 60 days (it seems so long!). Closely related to the squash, these guys are also very versatile and with about 100 different varieties, you can’t really get bored with them. I love dill pickles made from lemon cucumbers the best! Plus, those little round yellow balls of goodness really dress up a salad on a cool summer evening. Best eaten raw or pickled, you can also make gazpacho, or add them to drinks. Grow them on a trellis, in a well-drained pot. Harvest often so you get them when they are small and tender. They grow best in Hardiness zones 4-12 and prefer to be warm in loose soil. Since the fruits are really moist, they need a lot of water, but try to keep leaves dry. They do really need full sunlight to produce the best. Lettuce is more than just lettuce. first farmed by the ancient Egyptians, and then later described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1753, lettuce has been around for a while. Most use it in salads and on sandwiches, but if you want to group things like cabbage (technically not a lettuce), kale and spinach in here, you have pretty diverse uses. All are filled with antioxidants and vitamins as well as all that fiber we need. All varieties of lettuce grow best in cooler climates, this is why the fields of California are filled with it during the winter months, and then transition over to peppers and tomatoes as it warms up. Shallow roots and fast sprouts mean you can grow them in a small pot in your kitchen window for year-round fresh lettuce. I like to mix it up in my pots and have a variety. This way I can snip a few leaves to toss into a smoothie, or into a wrap for added flavor and the healthy addition of nutrients. If the plants ever get too big, I just feed them to the ducks and plant a few more seeds. I love being able to grow them with no fertilizers or pesticides, so I know exactly what’s on my food. One of my all-time favorites is radish sprouts/micro-greens. Sometimes I just put the packet of seeds into a mason jar with some cheese cloth and wait a few days before using them on salads and sandwiches. These don’t need a deep pot, depending on the variety, but they do need space to develop that nice round root. They are fast growing and prefer cool temperatures and sandy soils with full sun. They can be added to other pots as companion plants for their ability to deter pests from other plants such as cucumbers, lettuce, and peas. Varieties are the standard red treasures we are all comfortable with, the Watermelon radish, The Daikon radish common pickled with carrots in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Not typically cooked, radishes will still dress up any dish as a garnish at the least. Choose a pot with a depth that will accommodate your radish, and space out accordingly, or add to some other pots as pest control you can eat. True story! The father of scientific nomenclature, Carolus Linnaeus, invented the two-name system (you know, those two impossible to pronounce Latin words you often see) because of onions. Can you believe it? Well, he was an avid gardener, and traveled around to find new things to grow. What grew was the frustration that something as simple as an onion had so many different names in different countries. So now we have our genus and species (and the rest of the classification system) names for literally everything on the planet. Anyway, what don’t you use onions in? How many are there exactly? Well, there’s red, white, yellow, green….Oh yeah shallots…What else? They come in sweet all the way to spicy, some make you cry more than others. They do grow well in pots too. I tested this last year when I bought seed onions and my raised beds were not ready yet, so I threw them in pots, and they did just fine! Well drained soils in a deep pot (about 10 inches), make sure you give them room to grow fat and not crowd each other. The onion is actually the storage root of the plant, so you only get one per plant. Give them lots of light and enjoy them in soups all winter long. You don’t have to be in Idaho to get potatoes, they are one of the vegetables that grow great in containers. They grow great in pots like these special potato pots. I had never tried to grow potatoes before, and I tell you, I got so many out of these pots this year. They did so well with a soil that dried well between watering, I can’t believe how many potatoes there were in there! We did get raided by deer who ate all of the green parts, so the potatoes got harvested early when they were small, but they were so good! Potatoes come in a variety of colors and sizes from white to purple, from fingerling to bakers. Being a member of that notorious nightshade family, did you know the green parts are actually toxic? Those Tomatoes up at the top of the list too, I bet you never wondered why we don’t eat those pretty green leaves that smell so darn good did you? Well now you do. As stated earlier, pretty much anything wall grow in containers, you just have to be patient and let them grow. Give them what they need and then enjoy the organic fresh goodness all year long! Container gardening is so versatile since it can be outside or inside, you really can still have fresh produce in the depths of winter if you do it right. Get some cheap pots and some good organic soil and get growing!4) Beans
5) Squash
6) Cucumbers
7) Lettuce
8) Radishes
9) Onions
10) Potatoes
Even More You Can Grow.