Five Garden Vegetables You Can Grow On Your Patio This Summer

If you love buying fresh, organic produce and wish you had an acre of land to plant a garden, you can still grow your own fresh vegetables even on a patio space if you live in an urban jungle. With a few containers and some seeds, here are five vegetables even a novice gardener can grow to enjoy your own fresh vegetables this summer.

Tomatoes

This probably isn’t a surprise to most people, as tomato plants love to crawl up a trellis or the inside of a tomato cage, and many have already discovered they can grow tomatoes in containers. The biggest key to success in growing tomatoes on your patio is choosing the right-size container. About recommends at least a 2? x 2? square container if you don’t have a five-gallon bucket you can use to grow your tomato plant. Make sure there are drainage holes in whatever container you use, and only plant one plant per container using fertilized potting soil, planting it deep enough that only a small amount of the tomato plant is above the surface.

Add a tomato cage to help your plant grow properly in a small space, and you may still need to add a stake to give your tomatoes support, then get ready to do a whole lot of watering to make this vegetable grow. The biggest challenge with growing tomatoes is keeping them watered enough, but not too much, and making sure they get at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. Expect to have to water them every day, and sometimes twice a day when it’s really hot and dry. It’s best to water tomatoes and other plants in the morning, and be sure to get the soil wet, not just the leaves.

Eggplant

You might be surprised that eggplant requires a shallower container than many garden vegetables. You can grow this vegetable in a container as long as it’s at least five inches deep, And depending on the size of your pot, you can plant one or two seeds in each container. Clay pots are a great choice for eggplant because the heat generated from sunlight helps your plant grow. This is one plant that does not like the cold, so bring it indoors on chilly nights.

The video below takes you through the whole process of growing eggplant in your patio garden.

Carrots

Carrots may not need a wide space to grow, but make sure your containers run deep. You’ll want to use containers there that are at least 12 inches deep to grow carrots, even the shorter varieties. Also make sure the containers you choose have drainage holes so that the root vegetables don’t stay too wet.

You want to plant about four seeds for every square inch, so you can get several plants into one container. While you want to water carrots like any plant, go a little bit easier on the watering for carrots as opposed to tomatoes. They also need less sunlight than tomatoes, so you can try your hand at growing them indoors. Plant a variety of colors for a surprise when you harvest and a colorful mix in your roasting pan.

Spinach

Not only can you grow spinach on your patio, but did you know you can grow it indoors as well? This is one of the vegetables for your garden that doesn’t need as much sunlight, and in fact, you need to be careful not to give it too much heat and sun or it can wilt. Plant each spinach plant in at least an eight-inch deep container, preferably in the shadier area of the patio. You want to water this plant frequently also, to help keep it fresh and prevent wilting as well.

To help with germination, refrigerate spinach seeds one week before planting.Plant spinach seeds a half-inch deep in the soil and keep them well watered. Because spinach is more of a cool season plant, this can be one of the first vegetables you plant on your patio garden.

Zucchini and Summer Squash

You can grow about any type of squash in containers, but summer squash is one of the best. This is one of the easier garden vegetables to grow in your patio because this hardy plant can grow just about anywhere. You want to make sure to harvest the squashes that are ready, so that clears the way for new ones to keep growing. A mature squash plant can yield about three squashes each week from each plant.

There are a few pests you need to manage with proper prevention and treatment, as outlined in the video below.

While there are plenty of fresh produce options in the summer, such as farmers’ markets and roadside stands, there is nothing more satisfying than growing and cooking your own fresh vegetables. All you need is little space and a commitment to the basic care and watering of your garden, and you’ll create your own healthy harvest.

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