Hanging Vegetable Gardens

Fellow urbanites and small-space gardeners, are you all out of space to grow fruit and veggies in the ground? Then It's Time To Grow Up.

Grow vining fruits and vegetables and leafy greens from baskets you can hang on your balcony, deck railings, from awnings, hooks on your fence, or tree branches. And from sturdy arbors.....

Hang planters at different levels to use up all available vertical space. Like a curtain of food. There are macrame and wire types of hanging planters that hold 2 or 3 pots.

Combining baskets of food with baskets of flowering plants looks amazing. Get dwarf varieties of eggplant (I like baby eggplants) and other vining vegetables that won't need too much space. There are several veggies and fruits that are vining - these will love a hanging basket, grow downward, and don't need a support to cling to, as they would if planted in the ground and traditionally had to grow up a support.

The main thing to remember with hanging baskets, is that you will be watering a lot more frequently, since water evaporates faster when plants are in baskets. Plants will also have to deal with more direct heat than if they were planted in the ground. I'd say you have to water them once daily. During a heat wave or dry spell, you can almost count on having to water that limited patch of soil twice a day.

Choose decorative hanging baskets for even more eye-appeal. Add flowers with herbs. Adding nasturtium and marigold plants helps prevent insects from dining on your food. These plants are natural bug repellents. I've used leaky metal pails and buckets painted in a bright color, and i've used beat up old enamelware colanders to make hanging baskets. Those are cool because excess water just seeps out of the holes onto plants below it. It also means you probably have to water more often. I just like the look.

Perfect places for baskets are by the front door, under eaves, from fences, balconies, arbors, gazebos, and in trees. There are several styles of woven Grow Bags especially for growing as baskets, as well as different types of traditional hanging basket.

Baskets should be large - 12 inch diameter and larger for the trailing berries and tomatoes.

Which Vegetables and fruits Can You Grow in a Hanging Basket

Eggplants, small pepper varieties, cherry tomatoes, and lettuce are all good plants for hanging baskets. Chives, mustard (and other greens), and many types of herbs also grow well.

Fruit:

Of course, there's the ever-popular strawberry plants. Ruby Ann is adorable.
Other strawberries: Tristar, Tribute, Evie, and Albion.

Blueberries: Midnight Cascade Blueberry

Raspberries: Ruby Falls, Raspberry Shortcake. Ruby Falls is the shortest of the raspberry plants.

Blackberries: Black Cascade, Baby Cakes.

Veggies:

Lettuce thrives in baskets and looks beautiful. Plant several lettuce varieties, a couple of herbs, and some flowers into a hanging basket. You can pack in the plants. Leafy greens - lettuces, kales, spinach, etc. are really easy to grow. Pinch off leaves for your salad as it grows. Also visit our Salad Bar and Salsa Garden Design page for more ideas. Lots of the ideas can be grown in baskets. You can grow one type of greens per pot, or grow a salad bar in each pot of different varieties.

Cucumbers, squash, peas, cherry tomatoes, just about any herb, look great and perform well in hanging baskets. Don't try to grow heavy veggies and fruits like melons and giant squash in baskets. They're just too heavy, unless they're hanging from heavy duty hardware in walls. Use the new dwarf varieties of your favorites.

Peas - if you plant them in a hanging basket, they will grow downwards and don’t require support. A dwarf variety or snow pea will do best. You should hang the basket in a sunny location. Harvest pods quickly once they are ready to pick, and this will encourage the plant to produce more.
Same goes for pole beans - they will trail instead of climb and don't need support.

Some varieties of tomatoes are bred specifically for this vining purpose. Suncherry and Sun Baby are good in pots. A more cherry varieties are "Tumbler" "Tumbling Tom", and "Little Wonder". Compact bush tomato types are also suitable. Tomatoes should be planted one plant per basket. Plant in the center of a large hanging basket and let it trail down the sides. "Tumbler" tomatoes can be grown in hanging planters as small as ten inches in diameter. They will grow over the edges of the planter and tumble down the sides. These come in yellow and red varieties. "Torenzo" is another good candidate for baskets.

Depending on which way your home faces, baskets that are hung under the eaves may be in the shade. Also baskets hanging from limbs of large trees. Not a problem. Those veggies that are grown for their leaves, such as lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard, do well living in part shade. Full sun can be detrimental, and can cause lettuces to "bolt" from too much heat and sun. Other edibles that do well in shade are chives, beetroot, carrots, leeks, rhubarb and turnips, as well as some fruits like black currants and blackberries. You'll need to provide baskets big enough for some of these larger berry plants.

Grow ornamental. Plant flowers with your food....

An unlimited assortment of sun-worshipping annuals and perennials will love life in a basket placed in a sunny space. Geraniums, alyssum, marigolds, lobelia, and verbena. Vines love baskets, too. It’s one of the best places to grow trailing plants such as sweet potato vine, trailing geraniums, ivies, and black-eyed Susan vine. Many shade-loving plants thrive in hanging baskets, including fuchsias, impatiens, ferns, pansies, and begonias. These are beautiful hanging from a front porch or pergola.