Great Vegetable Plants for Containers and Small Spaces

Whew . . . It has been a busy two weeks at the Garden center with the beautiful weekends for Mother’s Day and the Annual Garden Center Party; and now we are heading into the busiest planting weekend of the year. The greenhouse has been restocked and we are ready.

One of the exciting things that I am seeing this season is the variety of vegetable plants that are specific for container or small-space gardening. This is great news for the new gardener who doesn’t want to be overwhelmed by the large garden or for those who have had the large gardens and are in their “down-size” phase (like me). I could go on and on about the wonderful aspects of container gardening and how easy it is to start gardening with just one container and just one plant and then you’re hooked like the millions of gardeners that get excited each spring about growing plants that give us edible and/or visual pleasure, but for now I will describe some of the special varieties that are being grown for containers.

Cucumbers - ‘Salad Bush’ is a variety that is perfect for the container as it has a rounded shape with short, heavily- producing vines that could easily be supported by using a tomato cage in the container. The cucumbers are usually about 8” long.

Eggplants - Some of the varieties of eggplants that grow easily in containers are the Asian types like ‘Ichiban’ which has long slender dark fruit; dwarf types like ‘Rosa Bianca’ which is an heirloom variety from Italy that produces a round shape that is lavender colored with white streaks (what fun); ‘Fairy Tale’ which grows long purple striped fruit in clusters; and ‘Pinstripe’ which grows great in a hanger basket.

Peppers  - All pepper plants can easily be grown in a container but a variety that works well for a hanging container is the ‘Mohawk’ which has a slightly trailing habit with fruit that grows 4-5”, green but turning a lovely shade of orange for sweeter taste.

Tomatoes - All tomatoes can be grown in containers but determinate varieties which grow as bushes rather than vines do better. Some of the many varieties of determinate tomatoes include ’Jet Star’; ’Oregon Spring’ (an early tomato); ’Bush Champion’ a tomato bush with strong stems that doesn’t need support with a cage; and varieties that are great for hanging baskets include ’Tumbling Tom’ in both red and yellow and ’Cherry Falls’ a bright red cherry tomato plant that cascades 36-40” but with only 6” in height.

These are just a few of the many varieties of vegetable plants that are available to the gardener who doesn’t have a lot of space. Try them and you just might get excited by growing some “fun”!