You don’t need to have acres of land or fancy raised garden beds to have nutritious fresh produce. If you have a patio or balcony, you can take advantage of container gardening to grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

Container gardening provides some benefits over standard gardening in that you control the soil quality, your garden is more mobile, and it is easier to manage pests and diseases. To be a successful balcony gardener, you should keep a few things in mind.

1. Choose the right container - Be sure to pick a container that will provide the proper amount of space for the plant’s root system. Some vegetables, like tomatoes, have large root systems, while others, like radishes, have very shallow roots. The containers should have good drainage holes. It is easy for pots to get flooded in heavy rain, so they need to be able to drain quickly.
2. Choose the right location - Most vegetables, once established, need 6 to 8 hours of full sun each day to thrive. When placing your containers, make sure your plants will get the necessary amount of sunlight. If you have a shady patio, try sticking to shade-tolerant vegetables like lettuce, carrots, and celery.
3. Choose the right soil - Avoid using standard garden soil in containers. It can be too dense and may lack the nutrients needed. Instead, choose a good quality potting soil that includes some fertilizer. You should be able to find potting mixes specifically for containers at any garden supply center.
4. Have the right tools - A good watering can or hose will be necessary to keep your patio garden healthy. You may also want to invest in some gardening gloves, pruners, a trowel, and a hand rake to make it easy to maintain your plants.
5. Choose the right plants - Not all vegetables will do well in containers. Large vining plants like watermelon and pumpkin probably won’t work on a balcony, but there are plenty of tasty vegetables that will do well in containers, as we will discuss below.

10 Vegetables For Your Container Garden

1. Cherry Tomatoes - Cherry tomatoes are an excellent choice for a balcony garden. They produce an abundance of fruit on a smaller plant. Why not try our sweet Orange Cherry tomato seeds.
2. Peppers - Whether you like your peppers sweet or hot, they will grow well in containers. Try some mildly hot Jalapeño peppers.
3. Cucumbers - Cucumbers work great in containers. A variety like Spacemaster will work especially well since it has short 2-3 foot vines that don’t need a lot of vertical support.
4. Radishes - Radishes grow quickly, so you can have multiple harvests in a season, especially if you plant them in succession. You can also squeeze them in around your tomato plants to save even more space. You’ll be harvesting our Cherry Belle radishes in about 21 days from planting.
5. Lettuce - Lettuce is another vegetable that you can plant in succession for an extended harvest. Choose a leaf lettuce like Green Salad Bowl that is more tolerant of summer heat, to have fresh greens for most of the year.
6. Spinach - Spinach is a nutrition-packed green that thrives in containers. Choose a variety like Bloomsdale that has a fairly compact growth habit. It will work well even if you don’t have a super-sunny patio.
7. Green Beans - Several varieties of green beans have a bush-like habit and don’t need a trellis for support. Try our Provider Bush Bean to reap a bounty of tasty string beans. Beans can be frozen, canned, or pickled for long-term storage adding another benefit.
8. 
   Carrots - While carrots need a deeper container, they don’t need large containers to grow well. These vegetables also will do well in a cooler, shadier part of your balcony. Little Fingers carrots are great in containers and produce delicious baby carrots.
9. Bunching Onions - Bunching onions are a type that never produces the big round bulbs we are used to from a typical onion. We offer Tokyo Long White Bunching Onions that will do great in a container and provide fresh scallions all season.
10. Celery - Celery doesn’t need a lot of room to grow and will do well in a container garden. Chinese Celery is smaller but with a more potent flavor than many celery varieties.

In addition to vegetables, herbs make wonderful container garden plants. It makes it even easier to add them to your cooking when they are conveniently right outside your doer. Herbs like mint, catnip, and yarrow are known to spread rapidly if left uncontained but will enjoy living on your patio in a pot.

If you have always wanted to garden, but thought you didn’t have the space or the skill, a container garden is the perfect way to get started. Just try a few of your favorite vegetables and expand from there.