Just because you don’t have a lot of room doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy fresh garden vegetables. If you have a patio or porch you can start a container garden. Here are the seven best vegetables to grow in containers on your porch or patio.
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Peppers
- Spinach and lettuce
- Radishes
- Green beans
All you need is a little bit of space and some containers. Not only can you be proud of growing your own vegetables, but you can enjoy the health benefits of organically grown food. Keep reading to find out more about the best vegetables to grow in small spaces.
1 – Potatoes
Potatoes have been a staple you can eat with any meal for as long as people have been farming in the United States. Whether you make hash browns for breakfast, mashed potatoes for lunch, or fried potatoes for supper, you can always use potatoes.
Potatoes require a lot of dirt, so growing them might not be for everyone. But if you have enough room on your porch or patio, potatoes are good things to start your mini garden with. Plus potatoes are easy to grow.
2 – Tomatoes
Speaking of vegetables that are easy to grow, tomatoes might be the easiest thing to grow. So if you’re worried about killing anything you try to grow, tomatoes are the perfect vegetable to start with.
Tomatoes don’t need as much space as potatoes, but they usually grow up. So you need to have a system that gives the vines something to attach to. A simple wood stake planted in the pot does the trick.
3 – Onions
You’re probably thinking of the onions the size of a baseball you see at the supermarket. But the best onions to grow in containers are smaller. They have a small white bulb about the size of a pencil eraser at the base and long green leaves shooting straight up.
Onions are easy to grow and they don’t take up much space in your container garden. Look at the white onion options when deciding which to try first. And onions can be used to flavor a wide variety of foods and meals, so they’re always useful.
4 – Peppers
You can also grow many different types of peppers on a porch or patio garden. I like sweet peppers, but you can also grow chili peppers and other hotter varieties.
If you don’t have much space you might have to stick with chili pepper because they’re smaller. But if you have enough space, mix in some of the larger peppers like red or yellow.
5 – Spinach and Lettuce
The base ingredient of any salad, spinach or lettuce can easily be grown in a container garden. Both lettuce and spinach require a little more space than smaller vegetables, but also grow quickly.
Instead of buying lettuce or spinach for your salads from the store, where you have no idea what pesticides or chemicals they’ve been exposed to, grow your own and enjoy fresh salad leaves from your porch or patio.
6 – Radishes
I don’t care for radishes, but if you like them, they make great container vegetables. Radishes aren’t big so they don’t need much space. And some radishes grow in less than a month.
If you don’t have enough room on your patio or porch, radishes can grow indoors. So if you’re looking to spice up your food and don’t have much room, radishes are a good place to start your container gardening.
7 – Green Beans
I remember picking green beans when I was growing up from the garden. Then we snapped them and mom cooked the fresh beans for supper. And now you can grow the same green beans I used to harvest from the garden on your patio or porch.
While you can grow traditional green beans, several beans are green. And most of the varieties are easy to grow in any container garden.
Conclusion
All of the vegetables on this list are easy to grow. So get some pots and soil and start your small vegetable garden.
Start with the vegetables you already use and add new ones to try as you learn how to grow your garden. You don’t need a lot of space, so your patio or porch works great.
Some vegetables grow faster than others, so you can plant a variety of things and harvest all of the time if you plan ahead.