Listicle · Vegetables
30 best vegetables to grow in buckets (with bucket sizes)
Ranked by ease and yield. What fits in a 5-gallon bucket, what needs two, and what's a Pinterest fantasy.
- Container
- 5 gal standard
- Drill 6–8 holes. Undrilled buckets kill roots
- Sun
- Mixed
- Sorted by requirement in the list below
- Cost per pot
- About $4
- Free from a bakery if you ask nicely
A food-safe 5-gallon bucket costs about $4, holds enough mix for most crops, and is the cheapest honest container there is. Drill six to eight half-inch holes in the base — not the sides — and it will outlast every decorative pot you own. If it's a white bucket on a south-facing wall, wrap it or paint it; black plastic in July cooks roots at the edge.
The ranking below is by ease multiplied by yield, which puts potatoes, bush beans, lettuce and chard at the top and quietly demotes several crops that look wonderful in bucket-gardening photos. Corn needs a dozen plants to pollinate and gives you two ears. Melons need more root than a bucket has. Both are on the list, marked as what they are.
Full write-up coming: all 30 with bucket counts, spacing per bucket, and the six that genuinely need two buckets joined.
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About the author
Carsten
I grow food on a 4×6 balcony and write down what works. Not a master gardener, not sponsored. When a guide is wrong I fix it and note the date at the top. Questions, corrections and photos of your pots are welcome. say hello.