The Best Garden Vegetables to Grow in Planters and Containers

What do you do when you want lots of varieties of vegetables in your small garden? Do you let the limited space ruin your aspiration?  No, you simply grow vegetables in that inadequate amount of space utilizing planters and containers.

This can be done to naturally beautify not only your garden but also inside your house, perhaps on the kitchen windowsill that bathes in sunlight every day.

Most of the vegetable can grow in planters and containers. However, some of them are more appropriate for this purpose than others, such as cucumbers, peppers, squash and tomatoes.

The varieties suitable for growing in containers usually do not grow too big for the containers and typically contain “bush” or “patio” in their names.

Before moving on to describe the best garden vegetables to grow in planters and containers, let us first talk about a few important factors which affect the growth of vegetable in containers. Firstly the size and type of containers is significant. The larger the container, the better it is for the growth of the vegetables.

Tiny containers will cause the plants to become root-bound and hence, die. Most vegetable need at least 5-gallon container. Wood or plastic containers are better than clay ones since clay ones tend to dry out faster. Containers must have drainage holes in the bottom so that roots do not get rotten.

Secondly, the soil mix and feeding are also significant. In order to grow vegetables in containers, you need container mix or bagged potting soil or your own combination of soil. Vegetables typically need loose, well-drained soil with organic matter to grow in containers. Another important factor is watering.

When growing vegetables in a container, you must monitor the watering closely since those plants tend to dry out faster than the normal ones which grow in the garden.

Now that you know which factors to take into account while growing vegetables in containers, let us now describe the best garden vegetables to grow in planters and containers.

1. Herbs

Herbs are generally the first plants which gardeners select to grow in a limited amount of space when it comes to vegetable gardening in containers. This is predominantly due to the fact that most of the herbs are inherently small such as chives which usually do not grow above 6 inches. Apart from the size factor, herbs are hardy and can sustain in adverse growing conditions. Moreover, they can thrive on the continuous harvesting and cutting. Examples of such herbs include cilantro, onions and parsley.

2. Bush Vegetable Varieties

Common vegetables can be classified into two distinct categories. One is with long vines and the other with compressed bushes. The varieties with take the form of compact bushes are suitable for container gardening. This is because they do not tend to spread out too much or require trellises which are needed by the vine varieties. Examples of such bush vegetable varieties are snap beans, lima beans, tomatoes and so on.

3. Root Vegetables

Root vegetables are actually easier to grow in containers than in the ground of the garden. This is because the tasks of digging for root vegetables which are planted in the earth directly typically tend to be an extremely difficult and time-consuming task. On the other hand, growing root vegetables in a container allows you to easily to do the above task by simply turning it upside down to immediately find all the root vegetables which are prepared to be harvested. Hence, this makes container gardens not only an alternative method but also an optimal manner to grow root vegetables such as beets and radishes.

4. Salad Mixes

Another garden vegetable apt for container gardens are leafy crops which you would want to utilize as salad. In fact salad mixes are well-known in the gardening world due to their convenience and ease of maintenance. This suitability comes from the fact that salad mixes typically do not grow to their full size. The reason for this is because they are continuously harvested in order to maintain their small tendered size and also to promote continuous re-growth. Such salad mixes include lettuce, mustard greens, Chinese cabbage and so on.

A variety of vegetables are not suitable for container gardening and thus, it is also important to keep them in mind while deciding on which vegetables to plant in the containers. They include asparagus and fast growing trees which require a huge amount of space.