22 Stunning Container Vegetable Garden Design Ideas & Tips

Sheri Dorn is a versatile homesteader and culinary artist with a strong focus on organic and heirloom gardening. Holding a Master's degree in Culinary Arts, she combines her love for cooking and gardening in a unique way. Sheri is an active contributor to online gardening communities and enjoys quality outdoor time with her family and pets.
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Follow these Container Vegetable Garden Design Ideas to maximize harvest and make your edible garden less boring.

Growing a vegetable garden doesn’t mean it has to be boring, dull, and less interesting. On the contrary, it can be very enjoyable and attractive. If you want to know how? Just follow the tips below!

Here are the best vegetables for containers


1. Grow Climbers and Vines

shutterstock

Support climbing vegetables and vines and direct them upward with the help of a trellis or a cage or in any other way.

Such plants use vertical space and are abundant in production. Bitter melon (a unique tropical gourd known for its health benefits), gourds, cucumber, pole beans and other beans, Malabar spinach, vine tomatoes, squashes, peas, if you want to try– pumpkin and melons.

2. Choose Colorful Containers

colorful vegetable garden

You can brighten up your container vegetable garden by choosing colorful containers to grow your favorite vegetable and herbs.

3. Use Hanging Baskets

edible hanging basket
Image Credit: HGTV

Don’t cast out the idea of growing herbs and vegetables in hanging baskets. Tomatoes, strawberries, many other vegetables, and herbs can be grown in hanging baskets successfully. It also creates space!

Learn more about the best-hanging basket vegetables here

4. Start One Pot Vegetable Garden

one pot vegetable garden

This one-pot vegetable garden idea is perfect if you don’t have space to set up a container garden. It is also useful for those who have a small balcony or open window that receives full sun. We picked up this idea from the Sunset; read more there!

5. Try this Vertical Lettuce Planter Idea

vertical-lettuce-planter

We love this project done by Bonnie Plants, and why not? You can grow fresh herbs and greens easily in a limited space by following this idea. They have a DIY article on this for you to look at, check out!

6. Grow Edible Flowers

zucchini and edible flowers

To add some interest, color, and beauty, it’s a good idea to grow some edible flowers. You can use them in salads to garnish your meal or make sharbat.

Flowers like marigolds, calendula, viola, and nasturtiums can be tried. The list is long, and you can discover more names here.

7. Give Space to Herbs

herbs in railing planters

Your container vegetable garden may look incomplete if you don’t grow some herbs. Fresh herbs can enhance the taste of your meal always, so it’s a great idea.

You don’t need to grow all the herbs. Consider adding 2-3 plants that you like most and suit your location: Parsley, thyme, mint, sage, oregano, cilantro, and much more to choose from. A window box, a few small containers, and hanging baskets can also be used.

8. Tomatoes are Must!

Tomatoes on windowsill

Tomatoes are a wonderful and the most important addition to a container vegetable garden. They look beautiful too. Choose 2-3 varieties and grow a few plants to get a bountiful harvest of homegrown tomatoes. Learn about the best tomato varieties for the container in this post.

9. Add Colorful Varieties

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Vegetables and herbs with different textures, attractive foliage, and colors can be an excellent addition to your container vegetable garden; they can add visual interest to it.

Red hot pepper, red-stemmed swiss chard, round midnight basil, fine leaf rosemary with other herbs like lemongrass or thyme can make it look appealing. Here’s an interesting post on colorful vegetables for you to see!

10. Use Unique Planters

Container-Vegetable garden

Use unique planters to provide virtual interest to your container vegetable garden. You can recycle and DIY your own planters or buy a few in unusual shapes and sizes. There are a lot of DIY ideas available on our website for help.

11. Play with the Height

stunning vegetable garden

If you don’t want your vegetable garden to look boring, play with the height. Don’t use planters of similar size and height. Instead, group large and small containers together; this will create a visual appeal.

Tip: Group plants according to their height to create a garden-like surrounding effect. To do this, place tall plants in the back and short and low-growing plants like herbs and greens in front.

12. Grow a Citrus Tree

Growing a lemon tree in a pot is not difficult and is probably an intelligent addition to your container vegetable garden. Here’s our step-by-step post on it!

13. Take the Help of Vertical Gardening

Lettuces in the window boxes in a balcony
Lettuces in the window boxes in a balcony

The biggest challenge of limited space gardening is limited space itself. To beat this, take the help of Vertical Gardening. Use shoe racks, bookshelves, and plant holders to keep more pots.

If you’re a balcony gardener, railing planters and hanging planters are a must. Besides, there are many other unique vertical gardening ideas available here.

14. Start with the Productive and Easiest Container Vegetables

zucchini-in-container-1

Try succession planting for continuous harvest and grow the most productive and easiest container vegetables for a successful harvest. Here’s our article on it.

15. Try this One Pot Herb Garden Idea

one pot herb garden
Image Credit: Southern Living

Growing herbs is easy to grow along with other vegetables you’re growing. We found this One-pot herb garden idea on Southern Living fascinating for urban gardeners. See the full post here!

16. Stake ’em Up!

Staking and caging are also good ways to grow vegetables like tomatoes easily in containers in a compact spot. You can train the plant to grow vertically, saving a lot of space.

If you have a sunny balcony, patio, or rooftop, all you need is a large container to grow multiple plants together and enjoy a fresh, homegrown harvest.

17. Make a Salad Table Garden

gardeners

A Salad Table is an ingenious way to grow plants like spinach and lettuce. Just find a sunny spot and keep the table there, simple! You can easily get them ready-made from the market or make one for yourself at home.

Check out some impressive Salad Table ideas here

18. Try Raised Beds

Instead of growing veggies on the ground, you can grow them in raised beds instead. They are easy to maintain this way, compared to a traditional garden–If you have a back problem, want to control the quality of the soil, or looking to improve the drainage.

Here’s everything you need to know about making Raised Beds

19. Go the Hydroponic Way

Want to grow vegetables hydroponically? Check out some of the best DIYs here. You can also use PVC pipes for this purpose. One similar DIY is here to watch on YouTube.

View these hydroponic vertical garden ideas here

20. Grow Exotic Vegetables

Finding fresh, exotic veggies like Black tomatoes, Romanesco Broccoli, Mexican Sour Gherkin, Dragon Carrot, Red Perilla, and Thai Basil can be a tough job at the supermarket–so why not grow them at your home?

21. Make a Movable Garden

If your garden doesn’t get all the sunlight it needs, DIY a movable garden, which is basically a raised bed on wheels. This way, you can grow vegetables and move them around accordingly, where they get the right sun exposure to thrive well.

Check out some amazing movable garden ideas here

22. Save Space by Making a Herb Tower

Yes! You read that right! You can grow not just herbs but some leafy greens as well in a tower form to save space and plant multiple of them together.

Have a look at some impressive herb tower ideas here

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9 COMMENTS

  1. I LOVE GARDENING EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A PRETTY SIZE BACKYARD WHERE I STARTED MY GARDEN I STILL LIKE MY SALAD GROWN IN CONTAINERS:). I STILL MISS GOING TO MY CALIFORNIA FARMER’S MARKET ON THE WEEKEND WITH MY SISTER LUPE.I DON’T FIND THOSE HERE IN THIS PART OF TEXAS. NOW I ENJOY GROWING MY OWN VEGGIE;)!

  2. It is quite a lot of fun to grow one’s herbs in those strawberry pots. You can grow your own herbs in the kitchen without having to run to the garden during cooking. Thank you for this interesting article!

  3. There is a magic formula in almost all these beautiful container gardens and flower pot designs: Thriller + Filler + Spiller .

  4. You can t keep every weed from poking it s nasty little head up. Go to 10 ways to make weeds go away for several ideas to help keep that dreaded task under control and leave you more time to enjoy your garden.

  5. stunning mixed flower pot designs. Get ready for some botanical Latin and let s decode these magical container garden recipes!

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