Unleash Your Inner Urban Gardener: 25 Compact Edibles for Patios, Balconies & Small Gardens
Do you long for the sweet flavor of homegrown summer tomatoes—but don’t want to compete with towering tomato vines when relaxing on your balcony?
Do you crave the kick of homemade salsa—but think four-foot-tall pepper plants don’t add ambiance to your patio?
Well, you’re in luck: many new edible varieties offer compact habits, perfect for growing delicious food in containers on balconies and patios or in small-space garden beds. Bigger isn’t always better—unless you’re talking about flavor, and these tasty veggies, fruits, and herbs will wow your palette with great taste!
Below, you’ll find some of our favorite compact edible plant varieties to get your garden off to a great start this summer—no matter where you grow.
Most fruiting edibles—like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers—need full sun, at least 6+ hours a day.
Leafy veggies and some herbs may tolerate a little less sun, but for best plant health and most prolific harvests, place your edible plants in the sunniest spot available. (In extreme southern heat, look for a space with full sun in the morning, with a bit of afternoon shade for the hottest time of the day.)
9 Tidy Tomatoes for Small Spaces
Is there any fruit more coveted than summer’s first homegrown tomato—still warm from the vine? Tomato pie, BLTs, bruschetta, caprese salad…if your summertime meals include tomatoes as a main ingredient, it’s time to grow your own—and these compact varieties make it easy, no matter where you garden.
You’ll love these adorable, tasty cherry tomatoes that grow beautifully in any small, sunny space–even inside on a sunny windowsill! The petite plant produces loads of lovely, bright-red, sweet fruit that’s perfect for salads, snacking, or grilling on kabobs.
Height: Less than 12 inches
Days to Harvest: 70 to 84
Brighten up your windowsill or patio table with this cutie! Red Velvet produces bright-red fruit that tastes deliciously sweet. You’ll enjoy handfuls of fruit over a few weeks. You can even grow this petite plant indoors under lights in winter for a taste of summer.
Height: Less than 12 inches
Days to Harvest: 84
The perfect pretty, delicious determinate tomato for urban and patio gardeners! Golden-yellow, sweet fruit grows profusely on compact plants, making it an ideal addition for containers and hanging baskets. Plus, the plant’s dark green foliage protects the fruit against sun scald.
Height: Less than 12 inches
Days to Harvest: 55
Tiny Temptations Orange is a show stopper for its productivity and unbeatable flavor. This plant produces deep orange, sweet round cherry tomatoes. Enjoy this highly productive statement piece on your porch or patio in a container or hanging basket this summer!
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 70-85
Bring on summer’s heat and humidity! This disease-resistant plant grows beautifully and produces a great harvest, even in tough summer climates. With extra-large, early, San Marzano-type bright-red fruit, this hardy, determinate, compact plant is ideal for sauce.
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 75
Pretty and delicious—you’ll love how this unique tomato dresses up your balcony and your meals. Shaped like a bell pepper but with classic tomato flavor, the bold, striped, powdery mildew tolerant tomatoes are completely hollow, making them the perfect choice for stuffing.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 75
Delicious fruit shaped like hearts—how cute is this tomato?! The compact plant produces an abundance of tomatoes with tender skin and sweet and sour fruit. Not only does the plant create interest on sunny patios, the heart-shaped fruit adds charm to your dishes.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 70-75
If you love homemade tomato sauce, you’ll adore Jamestown. This highly disease-resistant plant grows easily and produces prolifically, even in the hottest, most humid climates without succumbing to disease. Plus, you’ll love the big harvest of bright-red fruit.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 80-85
While this compact, determinate tomato plant may be small, the fruit adds big flavor to your favorite summer dishes. Enjoy Little Sicily fresh, sliced or diced or add it to your favorite recipes. Abundant, small, red fruits ripen over a few weeks for a large harvest.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 60-65
Edible plants, like tomatoes and peppers, need nutrients to keep them productive and healthy throughout the growing season.
Especially with container-grown plants, make sure to feed them regularly to replace nutrients that leach out of the soil when watering. Start with good, nutrient-rich potting soil, like Sunshine® Black Bear™ Indoor & Outdoor Potting Mix, then feed as directed with plant food for edibles.
6 Perfect Peppers for Tiny Spaces
Whether you love the sweet crunch of bell peppers in salad or prefer the spicy, eye-tearing zing of fruit with heat, you’ll adore the convenience of growing your own peppers for your favorite summer treats. These compact plants grow gorgeously in any sunny space—porches, patios, and balconies. Chop peppers for salads, blend them in sauces, add them to kebabs, or eat them fresh—not only do these petite plants look pretty in your garden space, the fruit tastes delicious no matter how you use it.
A beautiful ornamental hot pepper that also tastes great, Quickfire produces abundant Thai-style, spicy, delicious fruits on a compact, sturdy plant–perfect for container gardening. No staking needed: this cutie grows less than 12 inches tall.
Scoville rating: 40,000
Height: 10-12 inches
Days to Harvest: 50-65
Are you ready to make your own Sriracha? With Early Flame jalapeño pepper, you can enjoy a kick of heat in your recipes, because these very compact plants grow gorgeously in containers. Harvest early and green for fresh use or wait until red and mature for sauce.
Scoville rating: 1,500-4,000
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 60-65
Want to level-up your hanging basket game? Grow these gorgeous jalapeño peppers on your sunny porch or balcony. An AAS Winner, pick when the fruit is green for a traditional spicy flavor, or let mature to bright red for a sweet, mildly hot flavor.
Scoville rating: less than 500
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 60-65
Big, delicious, sweet red peppers on a petite plant—you’ll love growing this beautiful pepper on a patio. While the plant only grows up to 18 inches in height, it produces full-sized fruit with an excellent shape and thick walls that reach 4 inches wide by 3 inches tall.
Scoville rating: sweet
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 65-70
Could peppers get any cuter? These 2-inch petite sweet peppers ripen from green to chocolate or red, making the compact plant both pretty and practical for your balcony or patio. Use these adorable peppers like you would any sweet peppers.
Scoville rating: sweet
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 60
Ponky Peppers™ Sweet Caroline Red is an upright Patio/Container pepper plant producing red, sweet fruit. As the fruit matures, they will turn from cream to flame orange to a vibrant red. It mixes easily with flowers or herbs in a large container.
Scoville rating: 5000
Height: 15-20 inches
Days to Harvest: 85
3 Compact Eggplants for Tiny Gardens
Parmigiana, moussaka, ratatouille, baba ganoush…eggplant makes a delicious, highly versatile addition to your homegrown goodies. Grill it, bake it, purée it, add it to casseroles and stews, or use it to create vegetarian burgers. However you prepare it, eggplant tastes even better harvested straight from your small space garden. You can’t beat the convenience and flavor of garden-to-table eggplant.
This pretty, non-bitter eggplant with few seeds makes the perfect ingredient for your favorite container garden-to-table meals. Unique green, oval-shaped fruit look lovely and taste deliciously mild, making it easy to add them to your favorite dishes.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 65
These slender, slightly curved purple eggplants taste mild and sweet, making a tasty addition to your favorite recipes. The oblong fruit measure 10 to 16 inches long and about 2 inches wide, sporting creamy white flesh that’s meaty and delicious.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 65
Patio Baby is a very early and highly productive eggplant with a compact habit, making it a great choice for containers. This AAS Winner has deep purple, egg-shaped fruit best harvested at baby size-2 to 3 inches, and are delicious roasted or in dips and salads.
Height: 18-22 inches
Days to Harvest: 75-85
Compact Cucumber Plant with a Big Harvest
Do you love the crisp, cool crunch of sweet, refreshing cucumbers during the high heat of summer? Whether you relish them pickled or savor them in salads or snacks, it’s easy to grow cucumbers—even in small spaces—as long as you choose the right variety.
Producing handfuls of 3-inch cucumbers on a plant less than 2 feet tall—Quick Snack makes the perfect addition to your container garden. Part of the Kitchen Minis Collection, you’ll love this deliciously crisp and sweet cucumber that grows well on sunny balconies, patios—and even inside under lights! Enjoy the fruit fresh off the plant or add it to a vegetable platter or salad. And added perk: the plant doesn’t require pollinators to produce fruit!
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 21-28
4 Compact Beans to Grow
Yes, you can grow beans without a big garden space—and you’ll love the incredible fresh flavor and crisp snap of just-harvested beans in your favorite meals. Whether you eat beans fresh in a salad, steam them for a simple side, or bake them in your favorite recipe, these compact varieties make garden-to-table beans a snap!
With the delicious flavor of famous Blue Lake beans but with an improved habit, this is the ideal bean to grow in your small-space garden. Upright plants produce big harvests of tasty, uniform pods, plus it’s highly disease-resistant.
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 63
This dwarf plant produces gorgeous purple-magenta-colored pods, adding pretty color and interest to your patio. The completely stringless, tender pods taste sweet and delicious. Plus, this highly disease-resistant variety makes growing beans a breeze.
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 56
The 5-inch-long, yellow pods look lovely both on the plant and on your plate. The compact plant grows easily in sunny, small spaces—plus this variety is highly resistant to bean common mosaic virus, as well as resistant to bacterial brown spot.
Height: 12-18 inches
Days to Harvest: 56
AAS Winner Mascotte is a bush type bean that produces long, slender pods that stay above the foliage for easy harvest. This bean also has white showy flowers for ornamental value during bloom time. Harvest these crunchy, delicious beans all season long.
Height: 12-16 inches
Days to Harvest: 50
2 Herbs for your Compact Space
Sure, most herbs grow well in containers—but we’ve selected a couple varieties designed to fill your patio, balcony, or petite garden with delicious fragrance and your meals with fabulous flavor all season long.
Everleaf Emerald Towers Basil extends your harvest, flowering 10 to 12 weeks later than traditional basil varieties, but with the same, great flavor you love. This columnar, upright variety makes a perfect addition to smaller spaces like patio and balcony containers. Its long growing season ensures you’ll have plenty of delicious, flavorful basil all season long!
Height: 24-36 inches
Days to Harvest: Immediately
A four-in-one herb! Fast-growing, the plant quickly produces a flavorful flush of leaves followed by delicate, white (and edible) flowers that are a treat for small beneficial insects, keeping pests away. But the best part of this variety is the large, green seed pods with bright, aromatic flavor that appear after flowering. Because Moroccan Cilantro is quick to bolt, it’s ideal for producing an abundance of seeds to use as coriander.
Height: 18-24 inches
Days to Harvest: 40-45 (leaves)
About National Garden Bureau
Founded more than 100 years ago, the National Garden Bureau educates, inspires, and motivates people to grow home gardens. National Garden Bureau members are horticultural experts, and the information shared with you comes directly from these experts to ensure your gardening success.
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3 Comments. Leave new
Fantastic as always!
Where can I purchase these plants?
Thanks for your interest – All of the variety names and photos have a link to a member for purchase. Many are available at your local garden retailer as well.