With good soil and the right pots, veggies can be grown on a balcony, deck, or porch as successfully as ground planting. With enough sun bush beans, eggplant, garlic, okra, squash, and tomatoes will thrive. But even in a shady spot, leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard will do just fine.
In her book in The First-Time Gardener series, Pam Farley of the Brown Thumb Mama website charts the vegetables, herbs and fruit grown in containers with recommendations for the size of pot or planter.
Container fruit ranges from apple, cherry, fig, and pear trees to blackberry and raspberry bushes, low growing strawberries, and vining fruit like cantaloupe, grapes and watermelon. Herbs include sun-loving basil, marjoram, rosemary, and lemongrass as well as shade tolerant mint and oregano.
