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A pot, a raised bed, or straight in the ground: each suits a different space, budget, and crop. Here is how to choose, and how to tell whether something will thrive in a container and what size it needs.
A pot is the most flexible way to grow. It lets you garden on a balcony, a patio, or a doorstep, and you can move it to follow the sun or escape a cold night. You decide exactly what soil goes in, and there are far fewer weeds and soil diseases. The catch is that a pot holds only so much, so it dries out and runs low on food faster than the ground, and needs water and feeding more often.A pot is the most flexible way to grow: it puts a garden on a balcony, a patio, or a doorstep, and you can move it to chase the sun or dodge a frost. You control the medium entirely, and weeds and soilborne disease are largely designed out. The trade is volume, a finite root zone that dries and leaches faster than open ground, so containers ask for more frequent water and feeding.
Best forSmall spaces, renters, and beginners growing herbs, greens, and dwarf vegetables.
A raised bed is the best of both worlds for most gardeners. You fill it with good soil you choose, it warms up earlier in spring, and the height means less bending. Because you never step on the soil, it stays loose and plants grow well close together. The downsides are the cost to build and fill it, and that it dries out a bit faster than the open ground.A raised bed is the high-control middle ground: you fill it with a known, well-draining mix, it warms earlier in spring than the surrounding ground, and the raised height saves your back. Yields per square foot run high because you never compact the soil by standing on it. The cost is building and filling it, and like any contained soil it dries faster than open ground.
Best forMost home gardeners, and anyone with poor native soil or who wants less bending.
Planting right in the ground is the cheapest way to grow and the easiest to keep watered, because deep soil holds moisture much longer than a pot. Roots can go as deep as they want, which is great for big, spreading plants and fruit trees. The trade-off is that you are working with the soil you already have, which takes seasons to improve, plus more weeds and more bending.Planting straight into the earth is the cheapest and most forgiving option for water: a deep soil profile buffers moisture far better than any container, and roots run as deep as they like, which suits sprawling crops and fruit trees. The catch is that you garden in whatever soil you have, improving it takes seasons, and you take on more weeds and more bending.
Best forGood existing soil, larger plots, and big or permanent plants like fruit trees.
Great for pots a standout container crop. Hover any crop for the dwarf varieties to look for.
Apricot, Cherry (Sour), Cherry (Sweet), Field Corn, Flint Corn, Mulberry, Nectarine, Pawpaw, Peach, Persimmon, Plum, Popcorn, Sweet Corn grow too large and root too deeply to thrive in a pot. Give them an in-ground spot with room to spread.
These are the crops with verified growing guides. We add each crop's pot size as its guide is checked against university extension sources, so the list keeps growing.
A pot is its own little world. Fill it with potting mix, not soil from the garden, which packs down and drains badly in a container, and make sure there are holes in the bottom for water to escape. Because a pot is small and open to the air on all sides, it dries out fast, so in hot weather check it every day and water more than you would expect. All that watering also rinses food out of the soil, so feed a little and often instead of one big feeding, and pick a pot big enough for the plant.Containers are their own small world. Use a soilless potting mix, not garden soil, which compacts and drains poorly in a pot, and make sure every container has drainage holes. Because the volume is small and exposed on all sides, pots dry quickly: in summer heat, check daily and expect to water more than you think. Frequent watering also flushes nutrients out, so feed lightly and often rather than in one big dose, and size the pot to the crop, since an undersized pot caps the plant.
In a bed or the ground, give each plant enough room. Crowded plants get less air, catch disease more easily, and produce less. How far apart depends on the crop, not where you plant it: a couple inches for carrots, a hand's width for lettuce, a couple feet for a tomato, and many feet for a fruit tree. Each crop guide gives its own spacing.In a bed or the ground, give each plant its room: crowding cuts airflow, invites disease, and shrinks yields. Spacing runs with the crop, not the method, roughly a couple inches for carrots, a hand's width for lettuce, a couple feet for a tomato, and many feet for a fruit tree. Each crop guide carries its own number.
It comes down to your space and soil. Containers suit small spaces, renters, and anyone starting with herbs, greens, or dwarf vegetables. A raised bed is the best all-rounder for most home gardeners: you control the soil, it warms early, and there is less bending. In-ground is cheapest and best for large plots, sprawling crops, and fruit trees, as long as your native soil is workable.
A dwarf or patio tomato grows well in about a 10 gallon pot, while a full-size tomato wants 15 to 20 gallons so the roots and water supply can keep up. Smaller pots dry out and run short on nutrients too fast for a heavy feeder like a tomato. Whatever the size, make sure it has drainage holes.
Leafy greens, herbs, carrots and other compact roots, and dwarf or bush varieties of tomatoes and peppers are the standouts. They have modest root systems and quick returns. Look for variety names tagged for patio or container growing, like Tiny Tim or Tumbler tomatoes. Large sprawling crops and fruit trees are the ones to skip.
About 10 to 12 inches of good soil suits most vegetables, including tomatoes and peppers. Shallow-rooted greens and herbs are happy with less, while deep roots like carrots and parsnips want the full depth or more. If the bed sits on hard or poor ground, deeper is better since the roots cannot escape into the soil below.
A pot holds a small volume of soil and is exposed to sun and wind on every side, so it loses water far faster than the open ground. In summer heat a container can need water once or even twice a day. Move it into some afternoon shade, use the largest pot that fits, and check the soil daily rather than on a fixed schedule.
Some, with care. A dwarf apple can live in a large container of around 20 gallons, but many trees, including a standard peach, grow too large and root too deeply to thrive in a pot for long. For most fruit trees, an in-ground spot with room to spread is the reliable choice.
Every recommendation on this page is drawn from land-grant university Cooperative Extension services, the public agricultural research arm of US state universities.
Sources are graded by reliability. Tier 1 is primary research from a land-grant university Cooperative Extension.
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