Getting Started
What a first season costs, what to buy, and what to plant first.
All 5 guidesPractical container gardening
Grow real food in pots — even when space is small.
You don't need a big garden to grow something worth eating. Pots & Soil is about choosing the right containers, finding plants that suit your space, and learning how to keep them growing, on balconies, patios, doorsteps and anywhere else a few pots will fit.
- Choose the right pot
- Clear container sizes for what you want to grow.
- Find plants that fit
- Vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers suited to containers.
- Grow with confidence
- Practical help from planting and watering through harvest.
Browse by section
Find the right place to start
Whether you’re choosing your first pots, deciding what to grow, working with a small balcony, or looking for ways to make gardening more accessible, start with the section that fits you.
Plants & Crops
Every crop, container by container, with variety names and minimum pot sizes.
All 7 guidesSmall Spaces
Balconies, patios and rooftops, including wind, weight limits and what a lease allows.
All 1 guideAccessible Gardening
Working heights, reach distances and tools that need less grip.
All 1 guideStart here
A few good places to start
Potting soil | 14 min
The best potting soil for container gardening: what to look for and which bags to buy
Vegetables | 5 min
How to grow cucumbers in containers: bush varieties, pot size and support
Ergonomic tools | 6 min
Best ergonomic shovel: Radius Root Slayer vs Fiskars, and what to look for
Light & placement | 5 min
Container gardening in shade: 23 plants that thrive (and 7 that struggle)
Planters | 5 min
Best railing planters for balconies: no-drill picks by railing type
This month · September
What to do in your pots right now.
Late summer asks a little more of a container garden than midsummer does. Here are four things worth doing this week, each with the guide behind it.
- Sow lettuce, spinach and radish for fallShallow trays about 6 inches deep, kept shaded until they germinate.
- Stop feeding tomatoes, keep watering themFeeding this late mostly produces leaves. Steady watering is what keeps the fruit from splitting.
- Plant garlic cloves in a deep pot by month endA pot 12 inches deep, hardneck varieties, ready to harvest next July.
- Check leaf undersides for spider mitesThey thrive in hot, dry spots. A firm spray of water on the undersides usually clears them.
About Pots & Soil
You don't need the perfect garden. You can grow in the space you have.
A small balcony, a patio, a doorstep, a few pots by the back door: whatever space you have, and however you need to work in it, something worth eating will grow there. Pots & Soil is here to help you make good use of it, with the container sizes, plant choices and day-to-day care that make the difference. I'm Carsten. My garden is paved over, so everything I grow lives in a pot, and this site is where I share what I learn from my own pots, from gardeners with far more experience, and from the research.
- Container sizes in gallonsEvery crop guide gives a minimum, so you know what to buy.
- What grows well, and what strugglesWhen a crop needs more room than a pot can give it, the guide says so and suggests something else.
- Named varietiesThe cultivars bred for containers, by name.
- Accessible gardeningBuilt from primary sources and checked with gardeners who work seated.
Latest
New and recently updated
Plants & Crops 5 min Aug 2026
How to grow lettuce in containers: shallow, cool, and cut-and-come-again
A 6-inch-deep tray is enough. Sow a pinch every two weeks, shade it in midsummer, and one packet of seed pays for itself many times over.
Read the guide
Accessible Gardening 6 min Aug 2026
Best ergonomic shovel: Radius Root Slayer vs Fiskars, and what to look for
Radius Root Slayer against Fiskars and three other designs, compared on handle shape, weight and leverage, with notes on which suit limited grip and which suit a sore back.
Read the guide
Plants & Crops 5 min Aug 2026
How to grow strawberries in containers: hanging baskets, strawberry pots, and everbearing picks
June-bearing versus everbearing for a small space, why hanging baskets often beat the classic strawberry pot, and how to get free plants from runners.
Read the guide