Although I have a yard with space for in-ground or raised garden beds, I still grow a lot of food, flowers, and herbs in containers on my patio.
Part of why I do this is habit. I didn’t own a house or have a yard at all until a few years ago, and before that I couldn’t commit to a community garden due to my work schedule. But I had balconies, and sometimes would grow a few things in containers.
The ground where we are now is heavy clay soil, which makes it hard to garden in ground. We’ve put a couple of raised beds in the yard, have spent time removing invasive plants, and focused on starting and encouraging native flowers. It’s been a wonderful transformation from mostly lawn grass into beautiful pollinator gardens and some herbs and food for us.
Even though I now have the space to grow food in my yard (and I am now growing some out there!) I honestly love growing food in containers on my patio. It’s just outside my kitchen door, and in summer it provides some shade and is beautiful and inviting.
There are challenges unique to container gardening of course. If you’d like a little head start, here are my tips for considering what to grow on your patio, deck, or balcony this summer.
How I choose what to grow in my container garden each year:
What will actually survive in my space. Some plants are better suited for containers than others. This isn’t to say you can’t try anything you want to! But I focus on plants that do well in containers.
GROWING FROM SEED HELPS: If you’re willing to grow from seed, there are a lot of choices of vanities for not just fruits and vegetables, but also for herbs. On many seed sites you can search and filter for container-friendly varieties.
GROW VERTICALLY: Many annual food crops don’t really need a lot of root space, but they may need above ground space. Vining and climbing plants, if you are willing to provide a sturdy trellis or support, can grow in a container since most of their effort is above ground.
LOW FEEDERS: The other thing to look at is nutrient needs of plants. You can meet just about any nutrient needs in a container if you’re willing to do the work, but some plants naturally need less nutrients/fertilizer and/or water. Herbs need a lot less fertilizer and water than tomatoes do, as an example.
I also take into consideration the microclimate on my own patio.
Take a look at the space where you are considering a container garden and assess how hot it gets in summer, how much sun it gets at what time of day (morning sun is usually less hard on plants than afternoon sun), humidity, air circulation, and amount of rainfall. Though with a container garden, you will almost always need to supplement with regular watering!
Write all this down and then when you are looking for seeds or starter plants, you can focus on plants or on specific varieties that may do naturally well in your space.
CONTAINER AND POTTING MIX TIPS: For most plants you want containers that are food safe and that are about a foot square, or around 4-5 gallons, or larger. Herbs *can* grow in something smaller, but a smaller container will be hard to keep evenly moist and so may stress the roots. Grow bags are inexpensive and can help air prune roots. If you aren’t using a grow bag, be sure that the container drains well.
For herbs that don’t need a lot of nutrients I use a mix of about 1/3 coco coir (for structure and some nutrient retention), 1/3 perlite (for drainage), and 1/3 any inexpensive raised bed mix if it has a little weak compost in it. I add an inch of earthworm castings on top before I water the first time in spring (to add just a bit of nitrogen and some other small stuff that herbs can use). Herbs don’t need a lot and this is usually enough to get them through the whole summer. In fact, next spring I will just add a handful of compost and or earthworm castings and reuse this!
For fruits and vegetables you can fill the bottom half of a large container with any inexpensive “raised bed” or “outdoor container” mix that doesn’t contain any added fertilizer. I like to mix in some extra perlite and to make sure it drains well. You don’t need the bottom half of the pot to contain fertilizer because the bottom half is mainly space for roots to eventually grow into, and to capture nutrient run off from the more rich mix you’ll make for the top of the container. To create a rich mix for the top several inches of the pot, a good recipe for most vegetables is from the Square Foot Gardening Method. I use about 1/3 coco coir which adds structure, 1/3 coarse vermiculite (and/or perlite) - vermiculite to help retain moisture and nutrients and/or perlite for drainage (depending on the plant), and 1/3 good high quality compost. For vegetables and fruit you may still need to supplement with organic plant food or fertilizer during the growing season, depending on the plant and its needs.
What will make me happy. The second category I think about when choosing my container garden plants is what foods or flowers will make me happy to harvest, to eat, or to look at this year. What will I want to tend to, what will I want to go outside and just look at.
I want some additional shade on part of my patio because our summers are hot, and there’s a trellis attached to part of our patio. So I this year I’m going for cucamelon, nasturiums, and a green pole bean. These will climb and vine up the trellis and provide some much needed shade.
I like unusual plants, cute plants, and I like the smell of a lot of fresh herbs even some that I don’t cook with because I like how they look or how they smell as they are growing.
(video: I grow “Vick’s Plant” or Plectranthus tomentosa because it's an adorable herb that smells a bit like eucalyptus! I take a cutting in every fall to overwinter and then plant out every spring in a container so I can have it on my patio every summer)
I like green beans. And I love to cook with fresh herbs. This year in addition to several fresh herbs, I am also growing a bush bean (royal burgundy) because I feel like I can’t have too many green beans. I guess I’ll find out :)
I also think about “bang for the buck” — food that I love to eat but may be expensive at the grocery store, that doesn’t keep well from the store, or that tastes much better home grown. For a lot of people that’s tomato. For me, one of these is fresh basil. I love to cook with it, it’s easy to grow from seed, one plant produces a lot of basil leaves all summer long, but it is sort of expensive from the store and doesn’t keep for long after you buy it.
Herbs in general are a good “bang for the buck” choice if you are going to use them or enjoy them, because they don’t need a lot of fertilization, you don’t need to worry about pollination or setting fruit, and most of them are “cut and come again” so you can harvest them all summer.
(video: My jalapeño peppers and basil do well in containers, and do well near each other)
What goes together. I mean this in two ways:
One is companion planting: Some plants like to grow together, either in the same container, or just near each other. In some cases plants are considered “companions” because one boosts the other’s production or flavor. In some cases one repels a particular insect that may otherwise be attracted to the other plant, or simply because the companion plants have similar growing needs (sun, water) while also not competing for the same nutrient resources in the pot.
This year I’m including sweet alyssum, french marigolds, and nasturtiums on my patio to help pollinators, attract beneficial insects, and keep pest insects away from my fruit and vegetable plants.
The other thing I mean is are there plants that go together for how I use them. Is there a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Maybe you would like to grow a salsa garden (a tomato plant, a jalapeno plant, green onions, and cilantro), or grow a garden of other ingredients that you like to eat together in the same salad or a favorite summer recipe.
This year I’ve added some larger grow bags with fruits, vegetables, and herbs that grow well together and that I like to eat.