No Garden? No Worries: Grow These 16 Veggies in a Pot

If you have a green thumb, your version of paradise may be an expansive garden covered in vegetable plants, vines, and sprouts. But the good news is that you can reap the physical, emotional, and — best of all — edible benefits of gardening even in a small space, all thanks to container gardening. This method of plant cultivation can be done indoors or outdoors and has a relatively low barrier to entry. Even if you only have a tiny balcony or backyard to work with, you can take a trip to your local gardening store, load up on containers, and get to work building your dream garden — with a little know-how in your back pocket. 

Not all plants are conducive to growing in containers (we’re looking at you, watermelons). We’ve curated a list of some of the best (and tastiest) types of veggies you should try growing in pots, as well as what you need to know to ensure that they stay vibrant, productive, and well cared for all season long. 

Lettuce is one leafy green veggie that grows well in both pots and indoor settings. It’s not uncommon to see living bowls of lettuce in kitchens, which can be picked from when you need some for a salad or to garnish a plate. The benefit of growing this vegetable in a pot is that you can bring it inside if it’s too cold or rainy out and prevent predators from eating it during the night. 

Lettuce thrives in soil that has good drainage and is deeply bedded. You’ll want to select a container that has more than 6 inches of soil in it to allow the roots to grow downwards and take up water — think a deep terra cotta pot. Leaf lettuce (including species like red and green leaf lettuce) can grow more quickly and in a smaller container than head lettuce (like iceberg). You may be able to get away with a container that’s 12 inches wide for your leafy varieties, but you’ll need something upwards of 16 inches wide and up to 16 inches deep for head lettuce. The other important thing to note is that lettuce is a high-water plant, so you’ll want to water it regularly to prevent wilting. Make sure that you drill drainage holes in the bottom of the container to prevent waterlogging, too. 

As a whole, leafy greens, including spinach, are very conducive to growing in pots. It’s a shallow-rooting plant that grows relatively quickly, meaning that you can have a harvest ready for your spinach and artichoke dip in no time flat. 

To grow your own spinach at home, you’ll need to use a good mixture of potting soil and compost. Compost not only offers nutrients to the spinach as it grows, but it also tends to hold water very well. That being said, you’ll need to constantly monitor the moisture content of your soil, as letting the plants go too long without water can cause wilting. The size of the container you select will depend on when you plan to harvest your spinach. Baby spinach doesn’t need as deep of a container — 6 to 8 inches should suffice — while standard spinach plants will need something a little more generous, like a pot that’s up to a foot deep. 

If you’re making a lot of salads and need to add just a little pop of color to them, you may want to try planting cherry tomatoes. Not all tomato plants thrive in indoor settings, so you’ll need to make sure that you select a cherry tomato plant specifically — not a larger tomato variety like beefsteaks or Romas. Varieties that tend to grow well in pots include the Patio Choice Yellow Bush and the aptly named Tiny Tim and Small Fry tomatoes. 

One of the most important things to remember about tomato plants is that they don’t like being crowded. While lettuce and spinach can grow pretty jam-packed in a container, you’ll want to limit yourself to one cherry tomato plant per pot. You’ll need a container larger than 14 inches wide, and it’s even recommended to use ones more than 20 inches for maximum plant viability. The plants also need a fair amount of sunlight — upwards of eight hours per day — making them the ideal balcony or sunny-spot plant. You may also need to add some structural support, like a trellis or a cage, to help support the plant as it grows. 

Everyone loves garlic (except maybe vampires), and if you’re anything like us, you know how easy it is to go through a couple of cloves at a time. This compact plant is easy to grow, though there are some important things to keep in mind when cultivating it in a pot. The first is that the garlic plant is toxic to pets if ingested, so you’ll want to avoid leaving it in a spot where they can get to it. You’ll also need to chill the garlic, which essentially simulates the cold weather that the garlic cloves need to form bulbs. Once the cloves are chilled, it’s important to give them a quick once-over to ensure that they’re not moldy or rotten before you plant them.

Garlic can be grown in a shallow pot that’s at least 6 inches deep, as long as the soil is well-drained. You can plant the cloves about 6 inches apart, so keep this in mind when selecting the pot you want to grow them in. Your garlic greens will be ready to pick in a little over a week after planting, while the bulbs might need upwards of nine months to finish out. 

Peppers are a useful veggie to have in your kitchen, whether you want to grow hot chiles to add a kick to your recipe or serve sweeter varieties with dips and spreads. As expected, not all pepper plants grow well in pots, and you’ll need to be methodical about what vessel you select for your chosen species. Dwarf chiles can be grown in a 2-gallon container, while bell peppers need a larger vessel, something closer to 5 gallons. Peppers can also be prone to waterlogging, so make sure you drill ample drainage holes and use a loamy, well-draining soil for your plants.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most peppers need six to eight hours of sunlight a day, so you’ll want to find a south-facing or sunny spot to set your pots. Like tomatoes and other large vegetable plants on your list, you may need to use cages or trellises to support your plants as they grow. 

Green onions are one of the most beginner-friendly veggies to grow in a container. In fact, you can actually regrow the green onions that you added to last night’s stir-fry — and you don’t need any soil to do it. Just slice off the root portion — which you’d end up throwing away anyway — and submerge it in a glass of water. The greens will start to grow over the course of several days, and you can easily pluck a couple, cut them, and return the roots to your water to create an endless cycle of green onions. 

That being said, you can also plant them in a traditional growing medium (aka soil). Green onions can be planted in a well-drained pot greater than a foot deep and grown from seed. However, it will take between 60 and 90 days to reap your first harvest from these sprouts, so it might be more advantageous to try the scraps method instead. 

Carrots aren’t like many of the other vegetables on this list because the primary part that we eat isn’t the stems, leaves, or fruits — it’s the root. We’re going to burst your bubble right off the bat here and say that the carrots you grow in a pot are not going to look anything like the foot-long orange carrots you buy at the grocery store — no matter how deep your pot is. So, it might be time to learn to like carrot top pesto. 

You can find several types of carrots that have funky shaped roots, like round Parisians, 5-inch long Chantenays (which only require less than a foot of vertical soil depth to grow), and cylindrical Nantes. When selecting a variety, make sure you read the seed packet to find out how deep of a container you need to grow them. Overall, carrots require a little more work to grow in a container than other veggies, since you’ll need to thin them and use the correct fertilizer, as using one too high in nitrogen may cause a proliferation of carrot tops — not carrot roots.

Kale is a tasty leafy green. Like lettuce, it’s relatively easy to grow in a pot. However, the most important thing to note is that it tends to grow quite tall — upwards of 2 to 3 feet. But don’t let its size fool you; most kale plants can be grown in containers that are only 18 inches wide and more than 10 inches deep. Since they are so large, it’s better to grow a single plant per container, or switch to a raised bed or planter if you’re growing a lot.

Unlike other veggies on this list, kale is a biennial. The first growing season will produce the leaves that this plant is most known for, while the following year will produce a flowering stalk called kale rabe. If you’re after the greens for your kale Caesar salads, you may want to replant a fresh batch every year. 

Arugula is a sharp, bitter green that is excellent in salads or used as a plate garnish. It’s also a relatively easy leafy plant to grow in a container and reaches maturity in about a month. So, as long as you time your plantings right, you can theoretically have fresh, home-grown arugula for all of your culinary needs each month. It’s known as a “cut-and-come-again” crop, meaning that you can leave the root structure attached and just harvest the leaves; the plant will spring back up and offer subsequent leaves throughout the season. 

Arugula can grow in a pot about 10 to 12 inches in diameter. The root systems are shallow, so you may only need to use a planter that’s about 6 inches deep. The most time-consuming thing you’ll need to do for this species is to thin it if you plan on growing full-size plants. If you’re opting for microgreens, however, you won’t need to space out the seeds when you plant them, nor will you need to thin the sprouts. 

Swiss chard is a wonderful and colorful veggie worth eating — and growing yourself. Although it may look like the lovechild of funky-colored celery and lettuce, it’s actually in the beet family. If you don’t like the harsh taste of kale, you may like the flavor of Swiss chard’s leaves, and if you absolutely love beets, you’ll appreciate the undertones of the root in Swiss chard’s stem. 

Despite the fact that Swiss chard generally grows tall — some plants can reach upwards of 2 feet at full maturity — you can plant it in containers that aren’t very wide. Just be sure to space the seeds between four and six inches apart so these garden giants don’t crowd one another. Alternatively, you can plant the seeds about an inch apart, then thin them once they start to emerge from the soil. As a whole, Swiss chard is a resilient plant that isn’t too prone to pests, making it a great, beginner-friendly plant worth growing.

Radishes can be a beautiful and colorful addition to a salad, though you can also cook radishes to transform their flavor. The greens are also edible; they’re quite tasty on salads, sandwiches, or even pickled. And perhaps the best thing of all? They too can be grown in a container. 

The depth of your container will depend on the radish variety you’re working with. Large daikon radishes will need upwards of 2 feet to grow their large roots, while shallow-rooting varieties may only need 6 inches. While a 12-inch pot will suffice, you may only be able to grow a few radish plants at once. So, if you’re after a high yield, you may want to use a large container or invest in raised beds. Unlike sun-loving peppers and onions, your radishes can get away with about 6 hours of sunlight and are a little more amenable to being planted near tall, shade-providing plants. Try Easter Egg radishes or heirloom French Breakfast radishes if you’re working with limited space.

If you’ve seen the size of an eggplant, you may be scratching your head, thinking about how all that plant is going to fit in a container. You can’t grow the massive globe eggplants, which need to be planted between 2 and 3 feet apart. Instead, stick to the small (yet equally delicious) eggplant varieties, like the aptly named Patio Baby, creamy Fairy Tale, and white-colored Gretel eggplant. 

The most important thing to know about eggplant is that it loves the heat, which is one advantage of growing it in a container. If the temperatures dip too much, you can always bring it inside. Outdoor soil also takes a while to warm up, so planting eggplants in a container can give you a head start on the growing season. Try planting your eggplant in a 5-gallon bucket to give the root system ample space to grow. Eggplant is not as fast-growing as the greens on this list — it can take up to four months for the plant to yield edible fruit — so it may not be the best plant if you’re an instant gratification type of gardener. 

Green beans are a great plant to grow with kids, as you’re able to see the whole lifecycle of the plant, including the sprout emerging from the pod. They’re also an excellent candidate for container gardening because they don’t take up too much space and are relatively straightforward to grow. 

There are two major classes of beans: bush beans and pole beans. Bush beans are more conducive to growing in a pot because they don’t vine like pole beans do, and you can find plenty of bush varieties made specifically for growing in containers, like Contender and Blue Lake Bush. You can plant bush beans about 3 to 4 inches apart and in a container that’s at least a foot wide and a foot deep. Pole beans, on the other hand, should be planted no less than 6 inches apart in a container upwards of 2 feet deep. When selecting a container for your pole beans, you may want to opt for something that’s bottlenecked or will provide the stem with enough support — though you will probably end up having to trellis it anyway. 

Cucumbers, like eggplants, bear large fruits. But small varieties, designed specifically for container gardening, will allow you to have plenty of homemade pickles in no time. Generally speaking, you’ll want to stick to bush cucumbers rather than vining cucumbers, for your containers. While they will vine a little — up to 3 feet off the plant — they don’t require the same structural support as vining cucumbers, which can grow up to 8 feet long and need a container wider than 14 inches in diameter. You can even grow a bush cucumber in a hanging basket, provided that its diameter is larger than a foot. The cucumber’s root system is extensive, so opt for a deep container that can hold more than 5 gallons of soil. 

Another important thing to note about cucumbers is that they need a ton of water. If your plants don’t get an adequate supply, the fruits can turn bitter. They’re also prone to pests and fungus, so be on the lookout for nibbles and splotches, and treat accordingly.

Zucchini can grow well in a container, even if the massive size of its fruits suggests otherwise. These sun-loving squashes are not all meant to be grown in containers, though; like the cucumbers and beans, you’ll want to opt for a bush variety over a vining variety. Bush Babies and Fordhooks are tasty and relatively easy-to-grow varieties worth trying. 

Zucchinis have prolific and large root systems, so be sure to opt for a larger container for growing this veggie in. It should be about a foot and a half in diameter and hold no less than 5 gallons of soil. While you can plant multiple zucchini seeds in a single pot, you’re going to want to trim it down to one plant per pot to ensure that it has enough space to grow. 

Like cucumbers, zucchini are pretty water-demanding, so you’ll want to keep an eye on your soil to avoid under-watering your plants. Zucchini, as a member of the squash family, suck up nutrients from the soil quickly and may require additional fertilizers to grow well. 

Beets are a delicious veggie to bake, roast, or add to salads. Since we eat the root of the plant, like we would a carrot, you’ll want to give this container-friendly veggie enough room to grow vertically. They thrive in at least a foot of potassium-rich soil. To avoid overcrowding, make sure to thin your beet sprouts about three weeks after planting; you should only have about nine sprouts per square foot of grow space. Since beets don’t like to get too close with their neighbors, try growing them in a large-diameter pot. 

It’s also generally recommended to start beets from seed in the container you plan on growing them in, as they don’t like being transplanted. You can soak the seeds to help promote their viability and give them a head start on germinating.