Container gardening for beginners: a step-by-step guide

What container gardening is

Container gardening is growing plants in pots, troughs, grow bags, buckets or any other vessel that holds soil, rather than in the ground. The plants are the same ones you would grow in a bed. What changes is the environment around the roots: a container holds a small, fixed amount of mix, warms and dries faster than the ground, and has no reserves to draw on. That is why the container, the mix and the watering get so much attention in every guide on this site. Get those three right and most crops are straightforward.

The advantages are real. There is no digging, no bed to prepare and no lawn to sacrifice. A pot in the wrong place can be moved. Weeds are rare, slugs are fewer, and you can garden on a balcony, a paved yard, a doorstep or a rooftop. Many people who have a full garden still grow their herbs, salads and tomatoes in containers because they are closer to the kitchen and easier to look after.

Will it work in your space?

Almost any outdoor space works for something. The question is what. Three things decide it:

• Light. This matters more than anything else. Fruiting crops such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers want six to eight hours of direct sun. Leafy crops and most herbs are fine with four. A shaded north-facing spot can still grow lettuce, chard, mint and parsley. Before you buy a single plant, spend one clear day noting when the sun reaches your space and when it leaves. The shade guide explains what the hours mean in practice.
• Water access. A tap or hose nearby makes life much easier. If you will be carrying water in a can, keep the number of pots small in year one, or choose larger pots, which need filling less often.
• Weight. Wet potting mix is heavy. A 10-gallon pot can weigh 60 pounds after watering. On a balcony or roof, keep big containers near the walls and check what the structure is rated for. Plastic and fabric pots are much lighter than ceramic or terracotta.

If you are renting, nothing here needs to be fixed to the building. Freestanding pots, railing planters that hook over the rail without screws, and a tiered stand cover almost every situation, and all of it comes with you when you move.

Your first 5 decisions

Every container garden, large or small, rests on the same five choices. Make them in this order and each one makes the next one easier.

1. The container

Size is the decision that matters. A container that is too small dries out in an afternoon and limits the roots, and no amount of care makes up for it. As a rough guide: herbs and lettuce are happy in 1 to 3 gallons; peppers, bush beans and chard want 3 to 5; tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini need 5 gallons at minimum and do better in 7 to 10; potatoes want 10 or more. The container size chart lists every crop on this site with a minimum. Whatever you choose, it needs drainage holes in the base. Material matters less than size: fabric grow bags, food-safe plastic buckets, glazed ceramic and wooden troughs all work, and the containers hub compares them.

2. The mix

Fill containers with bagged potting mix, not soil dug from the garden. Garden soil packs down hard in a pot, drains badly and brings weed seeds and disease with it. A good potting mix is mostly peat or coir with perlite for air and usually a little fertilizer to start the plant off. It costs more than the cheapest bags on the pallet, but on a first garden of five pots the difference is about the price of a couple of plants, and it is the single best thing you can spend it on. The potting soil guide explains how to read a bag and which ones are worth buying.

3. The light

Now match your plants to the hours you counted. Six or more hours: anything goes, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans and squash. Four to six hours: lettuce, chard, kale, peas, bush beans, radishes, most herbs, strawberries. Under four hours: lettuce, spinach, arugula, mint, parsley, chives and a surprising number of ornamentals. Morning sun is gentler than afternoon sun, so an east-facing spot with four hours can grow more than a west-facing spot with the same number.

4. The plants

For a first season, choose crops that are forgiving, quick, and worth eating. Good candidates are cut-and-come-again lettuce, radishes, bush beans, chard, a compact tomato such as Patio Princess or Bush Early Girl, a pepper, and two or three herbs. Buy young plants rather than seed for anything slow, such as tomatoes, peppers and herbs, and sow seed directly for the quick crops. Look for varieties described as compact, bush, dwarf or patio: these were bred for small spaces and behave far better in a pot than their full-size relatives. The plants section has a guide for each crop with variety names and pot sizes.

5. The watering

Containers dry out much faster than beds, so watering is the job you will do most. The rule is simple: push a finger an inch into the mix, and if it is dry at that depth, water until it runs out of the drainage holes. In spring that might be every few days. In July it is often every morning, and sometimes again in the evening for small pots in full sun. The watering guide covers how to tell, how much to give, and what to do when you are away.

Realistic budget

A first season can be a few pots, a bag of potting mix and a handful of seedlings. Put the money into the containers and the mix first, because that is what the plants live in, and add a watering can, a liquid feed and a few more pots as you find out what you enjoy growing. Most of it carries over: containers last for years, tools last for decades, and the mix in a pot can be topped up and refreshed each spring rather than thrown out. Your second season costs a fraction of the first.

Things worth buying in year one: the containers, the potting mix, a watering can with a rose, a balanced liquid feed, and plants or seed. Things that can wait: self-watering planters, a drip kit, grow lights, pH meters, moisture meters and most gadgets. A finger in the mix does the moisture meter's job for free.

First-week checklist

1. Count the hours of direct sun your space gets on a clear day, morning to evening.
2. Choose three to five containers sized for what you want to grow, each with drainage holes. Drill them if the container came without.
3. Buy enough potting mix to fill them. A 1.5 cubic foot bag fills roughly two 5-gallon pots.
4. Fill each container to about an inch below the rim, firm gently and water until the whole pot is evenly damp before planting.
5. Plant: seedlings at the same depth they were in their nursery pot (tomatoes deeper, up to the first leaves), seed at the depth on the packet.
6. Water in, then put the pots where they get the light you counted. Heavy pots go in place before they are filled.
7. Check the mix each morning for the first week. New plants in fresh mix dry out faster than you expect.

First-season calendar

Common first-season problems

Most of what goes wrong in a first container garden comes back to size, water or light, and all three are fixable.

What to read next

Once your first pots are planted, the guides below cover the next decisions in more depth. The Getting Started section keeps them all in one place.

• Choosing containers compares materials, sizes and costs.
• The potting soil guide explains what is in a bag and which ones to buy.
• How to water container plants covers timing, amounts and holidays.
• Growing vegetables in containers lists every crop guide with its pot size.

Common questions