20 BEST Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs for CONTAINER GARDENING

🪴 Learn how to plant up a container or raised bed the Gardenary Way: https://gardenary.samcart.com/products/gardenary-planting-method-youtube

If you think your space is too small to grow your own herbs and veggies, then you’re going to love this video. Some of the most beautiful, delicious, and nutrient-dense plants grow really well in container gardens. That includes herbs, tender leafy greens, roots, and flowers.

In this video, I’ll show you my top 20 container-friendly plants. I rank each one on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their ease of growing. By the end of this video, you’ll know exactly how to plant up a container to be successful, healthy, and so beautiful. And stick around till the end—I’ll give you 3 easy plant combinations for your container garden.

IN THIS VIDEO:
🪴 Shop the container I designed for growing herbs and leafy greens: https://shop.gardenary.com/products/container-garden
🪴 Learn more about growing these plants with my book, Leaves, Roots & Fruit: https://gardenary.samcart.com/products/leaves-roots-and-fruit
🪴 Shop the obelisk trellises in my garden: https://shop.gardenary.com/products/wide-pillar-obelisk-trellis-kit
🪴 Learn how to plant up a container or raised bed the Gardenary Way: https://gardenary.samcart.com/products/gardenary-planting-method-youtube
🪴 Shop the pruners and tools you see me using in this video: https://shop.gardenary.com/products/gardenary-tending-tool-set
🪴 Shop our herb seed collection: https://shop.gardenary.com/collections/2025-seed-collection-grow-more-save-more/products/herb-seed-collection
🪴 Shop our flower seed collection: https://shop.gardenary.com/collections/2025-seed-collection-grow-more-save-more/products/gardenary-pollinator-seed-system

Timestamps
00:00 Intro to container vegetable gardening
02:07 Best leafy greens to grow in containers
03:28 Best herbs to grow in containers
07:43 Best alliums to grow in containers
09:20 Best root crops to grow in containers
10:40 Best flowers to grow in containers
12:42 3 easy plant combinations for containers

Follow Gardenary Here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardenaryco/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gardenaryco
Garden Coaching: https://www.gardenary.com/coaches
Find a Garden Coach Business in Your Area: https://www.gardenary.com/businesses

If you think your space is too small to 
grow plants like I do, then you are going to love this video. Some of the best plants 
I grow in my garden, very tasty herbs, nutrient-dense greens, and even roots and 
flowers, they all grow really well in a container. So today I’m going to break 
down for you my top 20 container-friendly plants, and I’m going to rank each of 
them on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the ease of growing. By the end of this 
video, you’re going to know exactly how to pack in a container garden so that it’s 
successful, healthy, and so beautiful, just like my garden. And I’m going to give you 
three plant combinations that will always work in a container so you can get planting 
right after you’re done watching this video. So what are the aspects we’re looking 
for when it comes to picking the best crops for containers? First, we want 
longevity. We want to get this plant to last as long as possible in the container. So 
we want to go for perennials, plants that come back year after year. Or if it’s an 
annual plant, we want one that’s going to go for three, four, five, even six months 
in that one container so we get the most bang for our buck, and we’re 
not constantly replanting. Next, we want a low-maintenance plant. We need a plant 
that doesn’t need a lot of watering, does not need a lot of food from its soil, and 
does not need a lot of tending. Because everything this plant is going to get, 
it’s either going to come from this one container or from your hands and attention. 
Next, we need a plant that’s not too big. If we’re growing in a small space, we 
can definitely fill up the containers to the max, but we don’t need plants that 
are sprawling or that need tons of room to stretch out to grow to their full potential. 
Finally, you wanna get a plant that is seriously rewarding. It can be hard to 
remind yourself to care for plants when they’re growing in containers. And it’s 
also hard to not get too bored if you’ve only got a few things growing on your patio 
or porch. So you want plants that give you production big time. Plants that you 
can cut from again and again and again. The bigger the reward from the plant, 
the better it makes a container crop. So let’s get started with leafy greens. You 
guys know I love growing leafy greens, but I wouldn’t grow just any leafy green in a 
container. I like to grow biennial greens when it comes to growing in a container 
and planting leafy greens. I’ve got three favorites. My first favorite is Swiss 
chard. Swiss chard is a biennial plant, meaning it wants to stay in the garden 
for at least two years. It’s in the plant family along with spinach and beets. 
This is a serious super food, but oh my goodness, it is also a super model. Swiss 
chard gets a 10 out of 10. Next up is kale. Kale is going to be so beautiful 
in a container and you can grow it from seed. Now kale is also a biennial, meaning 
it wants to stay in the garden for two years. It’s going to give you that nice 
leafy green in the middle of your container, and you can cut from it again and again. 
Kale is more prone to pest pressure than Swiss chard. So you are gonna have to fight 
off the pests a little bit, and it will dry out a little bit faster and stress 
faster than the Swiss chard. So we’re gonna give this one an eight out of 10. Next 
up is sorrel. Sorrel is actually a perennial green. So this green is gonna 
come back season after season in your container. It’s got this delicious lemony 
tang. Now sorrel is pretty easy to take care of. It’s just gonna kind of grow and do 
its thing, and you can cut from it again and again and again. I’m gonna give it 
a nine out of 10. All right, now let’s cover herbs. Perennial herbs are my favorite 
thing to grow in a container. They’re so easy, they don’t mind drying out a 
little bit, which let’s be honest, is gonna happen, and they’ll give you millions of 
harvest. So first up is oregano. You can start this from seed indoors in the middle 
of winter. If it’s already summer where you are, I’d go ahead and just put a 
plant in. You can grow oregano around the exterior of your containers, and it’s 
literally just going to trail over the side. You could harvest from these plants literally 
every single day, and they’ll never run out. 10 out of 10 for sure. Next up is 
rosemary. Once again, start this from seed in the middle of winter. If it’s already 
summer where you are, just put the plant right into your box. Rosemary is a little 
bit more fragile and a little bit more prone to you know particularities around 
getting too much water or getting too little water. I have had times where it’s hard 
to keep the rosemary wet, and then I’ve had times where I overwatered the rosemary 
and it started to rot. I’m going to give rosemary for ease of growing around 
a six out of ten. Thyme is a perfect container plant. You can grow this in 
literally a tiny little terracotta pot and it literally won’t mind. Thyme takes up 
hardly any space, and it gives you all these beautiful little leaves that you can 
harvest from again and again. Thyme’s super easy to take care of. It’s not too fussy 
about the water, and the more you cut it, the more it gives you. Nine out of 
ten. Next up is sage. Same rule applies if you’re in the middle of winter. Start it 
from seed indoors; buy a plant if you’re anywhere past your frost date or in the 
middle of summer. Sage does have a little bit more of a fuss to it. It kind of likes 
the shade, kind of likes the sun. The plants can get absolutely huge and a little 
woody if you don’t keep harvesting them. This is a seven out of ten in terms of 
ease. Next up is lavender. I think we all have dreams of like running through a field 
of lavender. No, just me? I’ve tried to grow this a lot of times in the ground, 
and believe it or not, I think it’s easier to keep alive in a container. Lavender 
really likes dry soil. It originated in the Mediterranean, so sandy dry soil is literally 
like the sweet spot for lavender. It’s hard to get that in the ground, but in 
a container, you can absolutely get it. Don’t overwater this plant, and it will 
grow for you for many seasons. It’ll come back again and again. It is harder to 
grow. I would probably give this one a five out of 10 in terms of just getting it up 
and growing, but once you’ve figured it out, you’ll never forget it. Next up is 
chives. If you have to pick just one plant from all the plants I’m talking about in 
this top 20 list, let this be the one. Chives are a no-fuss plant. Like you could 
totally neglect this thing, and it will just keep growing and being beautiful. 
It creates these beautiful little purple flowers in the early spring, and it just 
grows and grows and grows some more. It protects the rest of your plants from 
pests. It doesn’t mind cold weather. It whether it doesn’t mind hot weather, doesn’t 
mind shade, doesn’t mind sun. There’s nothing this plant can’t do. 11 out of 
10. Parsley, so good for you. Vitamin C, oranges have nothing on this plant, okay? 
So you can start this from seed. It’s a little slow to start from seed. It takes 
you like three weeks just to get a little bitty sprout. So start early. Otherwise 
just buy a plant from organic source, local nursery, put it in a pot. You’re gonna 
have parsley all year long. Parsley is a biennial, meaning it wants to stay in the 
garden at least two years. Harvest from this thing. The flowers, if it starts to 
flower, let it do it because it’s a host to a swallowtail butterfly. It is a 
little fussy, harder to maintain the water moisture. Like it wants to be wetter than 
something like oregano or rosemary, and so you just have to get it right. Once you 
lock it in, don’t put it in too much sun, kind of like a like a shady place, 
four hours, probably the most you need. So I’m gonna give it a seven out of 10 
in terms of ease, but definitely worth growing. Last herb we’re gonna cover is 
basil. Basil is not perennial, it’s not biennial. It is annual, it only has one 
lifecycle per seed, but it self-seeds. It’ll create hundreds of seeds for the 
next year if you let it go to flower. It is fussy, it is fussy. It doesn’t like 
things too wet and it doesn’t like it to dry. So it is Goldilocks when it comes to 
that. And I’ve definitely overwatered my basil and it got all mildewy and spotty 
and gross. And then I’ve also under-watered it and it wilted. So I’m gonna give it 
a seven out of 10. Next up, let’s talk about the allium plants. So these are all 
the plants in the onion plant family. And these do great in containers. So first up, 
the easiest is garlic. So garlic can go in a container really any time of year if 
you just want to grow the garlic greens. This is how my mom first taught me to 
garden. Very sneaky of you, Mom. I see you. So I just had some babies at home. I was 
very overwhelmed, and she just plopped a little pot with garlic in it on my front 
porch when we lived here in Nashville like 15 years ago. And I would walk outside 
pretty much every weekend and just snip the little garlic greens off the plant, 
put them into my omelet, and I was hooked. I mean, she literally gave me a little 
gateway drug to gardening back then. So you can do that, give yourself some little 
garlic greens or you can grow the full bulb. You wanna have it in a much bigger 
container. Be sure you’ve got lots of good nutrients in the soil and you can get 
full garlic bulbs, but it’s gonna take you about nine months to do it. These are 
a 10 out of 10. Next up in the allium family are bunching onions. You’ll get so 
many green onions, I mean, you won’t know what to do with it, but there’s really 
no reason any of us need to buy green onions from the store because you can 
grow your own green onions in any size container. They’re so delicious. Now, if 
you’re growing green onions from seed, this is going to be probably like a six out 
of 10 because it’s kind of hard to get them going. But if you buy green onions 
from the grocery store, chop off the tops and stick them in soil, it’s like a 12 
out of 10. It’s a no-fail kind of thing. The last plant in the allium plant family 
is one you’ve seen before, chives. I put it in this list twice because you have to 
grow it in containers, okay? Okay. Next up are two root crops that you can grow 
in a container. First up is potatoes. Now if you want to grow potatoes in a 
container, I highly recommend you get a real big one. You need one that’s at least 
two feet deep and at least two feet wide. Potatoes are heavy feeders. They’re in the 
tomato plant family, and they’re gonna be relying on lots of compost, lots of 
nutrients in that soil. So don’t skimp on the soil if you wanna grow potatoes. These 
are really a set it and forget it once you get them in. I’m gonna rate them a nine 
out of 10 if you have a big container full of really good compost. And the next 
root crop is not really a root. I think it’s called a rhizome. This is ginger. 
And can you see this little baby is ready to go in a container? So ginger grows 
right along the surface of the soil. So it does need a wide container. Doesn’t 
have to be super deep. And again, you want to have the soil be pretty rich. 
Ginger is a little picky because it doesn’t like cold weather like at all. Ginger is 
like a tropical rhizome, so you only want to put it outdoors after it’s really 
nice and warm outside, like average temperatures 80s, 90s. I’m gonna give 
ginger a five out of 10 ’cause I personally have had a hard time growing it, but maybe 
you can show me up and like do better. Last but certainly not least to put into a 
container are flowers, marigolds. There’s a reason why every gardener knows the word 
marigold like first. Every single flower on a marigold plant is going to eventually 
create 10, 15, 20 more seeds for you. So once you start a container full of 
marigolds, it can always be full of marigolds season after season. They are annuals, but 
they grow almost the entirety of the warm season. So as soon as frost has passed, 
cover a container with marigold seeds, you’ll get flowers by the middle of summer, and 
you’ll have flowers all the way until first frost. I’m going to give marigolds 
a 10 out of 10 in terms of ease. They don’t dry out quickly. They don’t need a 
lot of water or care and they just give you tons of flowers. Zinnias are stunning. 
If you’re looking for the best flower to start as a cut flower, especially in a 
container, you got to try zinnias. They grow great from seed. Plant them as soon as 
frost has passed. Keep them pretty spread out. You only want to give maybe three, 
four even in a container like this one. the more flowers you cut from this plant, 
the more flowers the plant produces. Zinnias, I would probably rate these an 
eight out of 10. They are a little fussy getting going and just kind of making their 
way in the container. But once you get that first bloom, you’re locked in; you’re 
gonna have blooms all season. Next up, calendula. This is such an easy plant to 
grow from seed. You can plant it as soon as the soil can be worked, even and it’s 
cold, you’ll get flowers at the very beginning of spring. And then all through 
the warm season, after frost has passed, you’re gonna have all these flowers. This 
is a really, really easy flower to grow. I hardly do anything and I get calendula 
every year. And every flower gives you about 10 to 20 more seeds. This one’s 
11 out of 10. Finally, nasturtium, also such a great container crop. This is gonna 
fill out a container with just one seed. The whole thing is edible: leaves, flowers, 
and seeds, and they’re also a trap crop, so they will attract pests to them to 
keep them off of the rest of your plants. This is such an easy plant to grow, 
definitely a 10 out of 10. Let me give you a couple plant combos that you could put 
into just one container. You could do an herb container that’s going to be basil, 
chives, and parsley. So you want to put basil right in the center. This is where 
it can get the most amount of water of all the plants in the container. Then 
you wanna add chives around the edge. You could probably put four or five chives 
around the edge of this container by planting this way. You’re putting each plant in 
its spot where it will get just the right amount of water. The chives hardly need 
any, so they’re on the outside. The parsley needs a little bit more, it’s in the middle, 
and then the basil needs the most, so it’s right in the center. Next is a flavor 
bomb container. We’re going to have thyme, oregano, and nasturtiums all together. So 
you’re going to plant oregano around the edges of this container so it trails along 
the outside. You could probably put as many as three in this one container. Then 
you want to add some thyme in between. Thyme is also going to trail over the 
outside. Then you want to grow a bush-style nasturtium, a plant that’s going to grow 
right through the middle and get taller. You could also add a little obelisk, a 
little trellis and grow a vining nasturtium right up the middle, and then have the 
herbs around the outside. It’s going to be so beautiful. The last combination is the 
cut-and-come-again one. You’re going to have Swiss chard right in the middle. The 
beautiful colors are going to make this container so beautiful from the beginning 
of spring all the way to your first frost. Then around the side, you want to have a 
couple of sage plants. You’re going to be able to cut from these plants again and 
again. And in between each sage, you want to have some marigolds. This is going to 
give your container color. It’ll protect your Swiss chard from pests. And you can 
cut the flowers, put them into drinks and dishes. All the marigold petals, they’re 
all edible. It’s literally one meal in just one container. Just because you’ve got a 
small space does not mean that you cannot have really big harvests. If you want seeds 
for all the plants I mentioned in this video, I’ll put a link right below. Now 
don’t forget to like, subscribe, and stay tuned because I’m coming back with 
more small space gardening tips for you very
soon.