Growing Vegetables in Containers
Before sharing what I consider to be some of the best container vegetable plants for your garden, I’d like to take a moment to point out that choosing the right varieties to grow is just one step in successful container gardening. You also need to make sure you choose the right-size container, fill it with high-quality organic potting mix, and locate the container in as much sun as possible. My fellow Savvy Gardening contributor, Niki Jabbour, wrote an excellent post on the importance of these three factors last year. You can read her post here to make sure your container garden gets off to a good start.
Now, onto the topic at hand: Choosing the best vegetables for container gardening.
The Best Container Vegetable Plants
While you can grow just about anything in a container, it pays to select varieties that are tailor-made for growing in tight quarters. Breeders have taken notice of the increased number of gardeners who want to grow food in containers, and as a result, the diversity of container-specific vegetable varieties has been on the rise for the last decade or so. This has been a huge boon to gardeners looking to grow short-statured, compact vegetable varieties in containers; we have a wider selection than ever before!
I’ll start by introducing you to five of my favorite tomato varieties for container gardening in this short video:
When writing my most recent book, Container Gardening Complete (Cool Springs Press, 2018), I did a lot of research into the best vegetables for container gardening. What I discovered was hundreds of different varieties, each full of flavor and beauty but bred to be a perfect fit for container gardens. The result of all that research is a list of container vegetable varieties that are high-yielding, disease-resistant, and delicious!
The list I’m including in today’s post is a sampling of the more-extensive collection of container vegetable varieties you’ll find in my book, but the following varieties are an excellent place to start.
Vegetable Varieties for Container Gardening
(Seed sources and more info can be found by clicking on any of the individual variety names found in this list.)
Peas: • ‘Peas-in-a-Pot’ • ‘Tom Thumb’ • ‘Little SnapPea Crunch’ • ‘Snowbird’
Carrots: • ‘Romeo’ • ‘Tonda di Parigi’ • ‘Little Finger’
Cabbage: • ‘Tiara’ • ‘Caraflex’
Lettuce: • ‘Little Gem’ • ‘Red Cash’ • ‘Tom Thumb’
Cucumbers: • ‘Patio Snacker’ • ‘Salad Bush’ • ‘Bush Champion’ • ‘Spacemaster’
Watermelon: • ‘Bush Sugar Baby’ • ‘Sugar Pot’
Corn: • ‘On Deck’
Eggplant: • ‘Patio Baby’ • ‘Pot Black’ • ‘Morden Midget’
Summer Squash: • ‘Burpee’s Best’ • ‘Bush Baby’ • ‘Patio Green Bush’
Winter Squash: • ‘Butterbush’ • ‘Honey Bear’ • ‘Bush Table Queen’
Tomatoes: • ‘Patio Princess’ • ‘BushSteak’ • ‘Sweetheart of the Patio’ • ‘Tumbler’ • ‘Glacier’
As you can see, there are many wonderful container vegetable plants worth growing. Try a few new varieties every year to ensure a delicious yield of fresh veggies from your container garden. And, to save money and grow a great container garden, head to our article on homemade potting soil recipes for container gardening. For a more extensive list of vegetables for containers, pick up a copy of Container Gardening Complete.
Do you grow vegetables in containers? Which varieties are your favorites? Share them with us in the comment section below.
Related posts about container gardening: The best fertilizers for container gardens Tips for summer container garden maintenance 3 container garden ideas to give as gifts Container gardening trends Container gardening cheat sheet
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