The 7 Best Vegetables for Containers & Pots

A balcony, a patio, or a sunny doorstep is enough to grow real food — if you pick the right crops and give them enough root room. Here are seven that reliably reward container growers, and the pot sizes that keep them happy.

The reliable seven

1. Salad greens & lettuce. Fast, shallow-rooted, and cut-and-come-again — a wide, shallow pot can feed you salads for weeks. 2. Herbs. Basil, parsley, mint (keep mint in its own pot), thyme, and chives are practically made for containers. 3. Cherry tomatoes. The most rewarding container crop of all, but they need a big pot — at least five gallons — and a stake or cage.

4. Peppers & chilies. Compact, ornamental, and productive in a three-to-five-gallon pot. 5. Radishes. Ready in a month, perfect for impatient growers and small trays. 6. Bush beans. No trellis needed and a heavy yield for their footprint. 7. Green onions. You can even regrow them from kitchen scraps on a windowsill.

Size is everything

The number one container mistake is a pot that's too small. A bigger pot holds more soil, which holds more water and nutrients and buffers your mistakes — a five-gallon container forgives a missed watering that would kill a plant in a four-inch pot. As a rule: greens and herbs in one-to-two gallons, peppers in three, tomatoes in five or more.

Soil, water, and feeding

Never fill pots with garden soil — it compacts and drains poorly in a container. Use a quality potting mix. Because containers drain freely and you water often, nutrients wash out, so feed every couple of weeks with a diluted liquid fertilizer through the growing season.

Group pots together to shade each other's roots and slow drying, make sure every container has drainage holes, and put the whole show in the sunniest spot you've got. Do that and a few square feet of concrete can out-produce a neglected backyard bed.