10 Summer Vegetables You Can Grow In A Container Garden

It is totally possible to grow several types of vegetable plants in a container garden! In this video, I share all the summer vegetables I am growing in my small space container garden in Zone 6b – plus several herb plants!

For more gardening guides and information, visit https://smallspacebigharvests.com

Below are the products I use in my containers during the summer growing season:

Liquid Fertilizer: https://amzn.to/4evTfRC
Extra Tall Tomato Stakes (8′): https://amzn.to/3FS8UgW
2.5′ Garden Stakes: https://amzn.to/4jFKRQd
Potting Mix: https://amzn.to/4ldajOX
Worm Castings: https://amzn.to/4iPGsue
Mushroom Compost: https://amzn.to/41PK1cU
Adjustable Hoops: https://amzn.to/4c0Gc9j
Clamps: https://amzn.to/41WbqKn
Frost Cover: https://amzn.to/3Rf5mr5
Mesh Netting: https://amzn.to/4iCCC7P

Note that in order to support my channel, I do receive a small commission for products purchased through my links, but everything I link to is a product that I personally use and love in my garden.

#containervegetablegarden #growyourownfood #vegetablegardening #backyardgarden #containergardening

There’s a belief that you can’t grow a lot in a container garden, but I’m going to prove that wrong today. I’m going to show you all of the plants that I’m growing in my summer vegetable garden here in zone 6B, Missouri. I’ve been a container vegetable gardener for 7 years now. I do have a couple of raised beds, but most of my vegetable plants are grown in containers here on my back deck. So, I’m going to show you everything that I’m growing this season and show you that even if you are in a small space or you don’t have a big yard where you can be growing things in the ground, you can still be growing a good amount of vegetables every year. So, in this container, I’m growing some herbs. I have a lot of herbs throughout my garden, which you’ll see, but here I have sage, rosemary, and parsley. In my opinion, the easiest thing to grow in containers are herbs. Now, I grow a lot more than herbs, but if you’re new to gardening and you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, I really recommend just start with an herb garden, it is really easy to be able to grow herbs in containers. Another way to really maximize your space as a container vegetable gardener is to grow vertically. And so, I have a trellis here. Now, a lot of people use cow panel trellis. That is a little bit bigger than what I’m able to fit here in my small container garden. So, I just got some wiring. It’s a smaller size for my local garden center and rigged up something that works for me here with my smaller space. So, you need some kind of a trellis or just something for it to grow on. You really don’t even need a trellis. There’s a lot of different DIY options out there, but here I’m growing cucumbers. And then I have several varieties of pole beans. Now, the cucumbers I’m growing are a pickle variety, so they’re going to be smaller. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to use them for pickles, but I just find that when you’re in a small space, it’s easier to grow vegetables that are going to be those smaller varieties. You can see on the other side of this trellus, I have more pole beans, and there’s a couple small cucumbers in there as well. I have another trellis here where I’m growing a lot more pole beans. They are looking beautiful. They have not flowered quite yet, so still waiting on that. But this is actually a new trellis I purchased this year. Again, I’m always trying to find ways to do more vertical growing here in my container garden. I also enjoy growing different varieties of squash, mostly just summer squash and zucchini squash. I don’t grow the big ones like winter squash just because I just don’t have the room. Those generally do take up more space. But the summer squash, I do love growing those in my garden. I find that with container gardening, I grow them at the edge. As you can kind of see, like it’s doing here, it spills over a little bit. So, it’s not taking up too much space in that container. So, if you want to grow a squash in a container, I do recommend planting it around the edge. I’m growing eggplant. You can see a little flower there. Hopefully, that one got pollinated. This is a patio variety of eggplant. Again, when it comes to container gardening, I do try to grow varieties that are meant for smaller spaces just because the bigger the vegetable, typically the bigger the plant and the more needs that it has. And so, I’m doing a patio variety of eggplant. I’m also growing green onions. I love the taste of onion, but I have never actually grown bold onions in my garden. I do grow a lot of green onions, though, and I find that that adds that onion flavor to any dish that I want to make. And so I have several of these kind of popped in around the garden. I also have a Thai basil back there. And then I have a regular variety of basil. So any kind of open space I have in my containers, I fill it. And I find that herbs are one of the easiest ways to do that. I am also growing tomato plants in my garden. Again, I’m doing a smaller variety. So I do have a cherry tomato variety here. And you can see there’s actually several little green tomatoes forming. This plant is doing really well this year. It’s just about the end of June. I already have obviously tomatoes forming, lots of flowers. So, it’s looking really great. And again, cherry tomatoes are going to be that smaller variety. And so, that’s what I choose to grow in my container garden. Like I said, I do have a few raised beds, and in those is where I have my larger varieties of tomatoes just because I feel like I have more space in those raised beds, and they also get a lot more sunlight than my back deck does. I’m growing bush beans. I was growing carrots here. I harvested them a little late just because carrots take longer than you always think they will. And so, these bush beans were planted on the 19th, which was about 7 days ago. And you can see they’re doing really great. So, bush beans are definitely an option. I have more varieties of cherry tomatoes on here. Now, I don’t have any pepper plants in my containers. Those are in my raised beds. That’s not to say you can’t grow peppers in a container. You absolutely can. Again, look for those smaller varieties, but definitely something that you can do in a container as well. More of my squash plants in this other container. We had a really big rainstorm last night, so my greens, some of these are broken and need to be harvested this morning. But I absolutely love growing greens in containers. When it comes to summer, when it’s hotter out here in zone 6b, I am limited on what greens I can grow because for things like lettuce and spinach, it just gets too hot and they’ll end up bolting. So, I am growing Swiss chard. Swiss chard is something that I really love growing every year. It just works wonderfully no matter shade, sunlight, hot, cold. It’s really just a great green to grow. So, I have a lot of Swiss chard. I also have several varieties of kale. These are actually holdovers from my spring garden. And so a lot of these I either moved and transferred from the containers where I planted my summer vegetables and moved them back here or I had just planted them here originally and so they’re still growing. But I find that greens are just really easy to grow in containers. And again, specifically for summer, I have the Swiss chard and kale. I have several railing containers as well. And in these is where I grow my herbs. So I have several varieties of thyme, oregano, parsley, mint. I absolutely love the railing containers because what else are you going to put in this space, you know? So why not put a planter there where you can grow some small plants? And like I said, herbs definitely is what I choose to put in these. I think they’re great for those smaller containers. Here’s my other railing container with mint, which if you’ve ever grown mint before, you know that it just takes off. Absolutely no problems growing that. And then I have some oregano and thyme. When it comes to mint, you actually want to plant that in a container because otherwise it will absolutely take over your garden. Then lastly, I have some more containers down here. These are just galvanized metal tubs. I’ve had these for probably 6 years now, so these work great for me. And again, I have some greens, Swiss chard, and kale. I also have parsley and thyme in these. You could grow things like tomatoes and peppers in tubs like this. You would probably just want to do one plant per tub. This area gets a lot of shade and so that’s why I’m choosing to grow my greens here. My takeaway for you is that it is possible to grow a lot of vegetables in containers, but if this is something you want to do, I do have two pointers for you. So, first of all, you need to make sure that you are watering enough. Container gardens dry out more quickly than inground beds. So, I water daily, especially in the summer when it’s really hot. The other thing that you need to make sure is that you are giving your containers enough nutrients. Those plants in the container are limited to what you put in that container. That’s all that they have to go off of. And vegetable plants are heavy feeders, meaning that they need a lot of nutrients to be successful. So, I highly recommend using a really good compost in that soil. And then the other thing is use a liquid fertilizer once a week during the growing season. If you do those things, you are going to have a great container garden harvest. I hope you found this helpful and that you have a great growing season this year.