CONTAINER GARDENING

 What’s Ben Growin’

This page is for people who want to grow food, but have a small space and less-than-ideal growing conditions. This page demonstrates that it CAN be done; you simply have to adjust your expectations.

Every home cook loves garden-fresh ingredients. Awesome childhood memories of me gardening in the backyard with my father in Rhode Island inspired me to introduce some homegrown food into my modern cooking. I’m fortunate enough to have an outdoor balcony in NYC, but when you have limited space, there are unique gardening challenges to overcome. As a result, I created this page to share my container gardening journey so others can learn from my successes and mistakes.

My overall basic tips for small space container gardening are:

• Grow crops that are naturally small.
• Don’t compare your container garden to other people’s.
• Stay optimistic.
• Use appropriate fertilizers.
• Apply mulch.

Each season is certainly a learning experience; see below.

How to grow food in a small space with less light

I had little idea what I was doing when I first attempted growing food in 2018. In hindsight, I realize my failures were largely due to comparing my setup to gardeners with the most ideal growing conditions (of which I do not have). Keep in mind that SOMETHING will always grow, but you need to adjust your expectations to fit what’s realistic for your space. You need to have tunnel vision, ignore some popular advice, and focus on what your plants are telling you.

So first, let’s talk about sunlight. Most plants say they require 6 to 8 hours of light per day. Less light means less energy, and plants will grow more slowly. Aside from photosynthesis, they also rely on the sun’s energy to dry out the soil, combat fungus, and fight diseases. If you over-water with less sunlight, water evaporates too slowly, and the soil stays too wet for too long. This creates the perfect condition for root rot.

With these two factors in mind, my container garden receives only 4 ¼ to 5 hours of sunlight per day and can accommodate 3- and 5-gallon containers. Tiny varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and herbs are all things I can rely on growing well each year.

before container gardening…

Even though I live in NYC, I’m really a country boy from small-town Rhode Island at heart. As a kid, I casually watched what my dad did in his garden as he led by example. Being around nature is where I’m happiest. So when I moved to Astoria, Queens, I chose an area that got me closest to some grass, trees, water, and birds chirping. Where I live, there’s no sound of the subway whatsoever. A quaint area near Astoria Park is where I landed.

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Summer 2025

Jalapeño peppers, Cherry Bomb peppers, Tabasco peppers, Japanese eggplant, thyme, oregano, parsley 

growing tip takeaways

• extreme pruning is beneficial ONLY if you have a long growing season
• marigolds need as much pruning and fertilizer as your other crops

This season was a huge lesson in pruning. My cherry tomatoes died because of it (that’s why they’re not pictured), and my Jalapeño pepper plant thrived because I ignored some popular pruning advice. 

Simply put, pruning is the act of strategically cutting your plants in various ways to promote your own growing goals. When left alone, plants grow wild in all directions; then all of the plant’s energy has no focus. The result is small crops. When you prune, you signal to the plant to focus on growing a select few prominent branches. In turn, crops use that focused energy to grow as big and healthy as possible.

extreme pruning killed my tomatoes

When you grow tomatoes, it’s common to prune them by gradually cutting off the branches that emerge in between the stem and leaves, called “suckers”. This focuses the plant’s energy to produce along one main stem.

In the case of the failed tomatoes, the pruning turned extreme. A neighbor who passed by my garden every morning established himself as a food-growing authority. He told me that tomatoes only need the 5 branches below the lowest fruit, and I should cut off anything below it. I also saw this technique on one of my favorite YouTube gardeners. Well, I aggressively trimmed my plants, and they eventually died. I failed to realize that I was dealing with less light, and my tomato plants needed the extra leaves to gather as much sunlight as possible to help them grow.

why i didn’t prune my Jalapeño plant

Pruning peppers is different only in the way that peppers take a while to “get going” in their early stages. When you bring seedlings home, popular advice is to cut them down to promote higher pepper yields later on. This certainly works if you have a long growing season and lots of sunlight to help them grow as quickly as possible. I don’t have either of those. In previous growing seasons, I pruned my pepper plants and didn’t see the benefit because I lost valuable growing time. So this year, I planted the seedling from the store and allowed it to do its thing. It didn’t need my help!

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Summer 2024

Sungold cherry tomatoes, Tabasco peppers, Shishito peppers, thyme, sage, mint, eggplant  

 

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Summer 2022

Tabasco peppers, banana peppers, thyme, sage, dill, Shishito peppers,
eggplant, Sungold cherry tomatoes, Heirloom tomatoes

Beneficial insects, companion planting, and mulching were the main lessons learned from this growing season. From watching lots of James Prigioni on YouTube I learned how to use marigolds to attract ladybugs and other good critters that kill pests naturally. The mulching technique from watching my container gardening authority, Gingerfoot Garden, inspired me to put my unused barbecue wood chips to better use as mulch. 

I had some success growing from a seed in 2020, so I tried it again. These thyme, sage, and Heirloom tomato seeds started growing indoors in early March.

growing tip takeaways 

• Eggplants do not like hot temperatures. Lots of flowers fell off during a heat wave, and the plant never recovered. Only two eggplants were harvested.
• Even with 5-gallon containers, some veggies did not grow large. That’s completely okay!
• Pruning the Shishito peppers was successful, but the yield was very similar to that of the unpruned plant from 2019. Yes, more peppers were flowering, but more flowers dropped off simultaneously.
• Sage and thyme are extremely easy to grow from a seed. I grew them both in trays on my window starting in March, then moved them outdoors when it got warmer. 
• Large tomatoes require a specific fertilizer to avoid blossom end rot. 
• Marigolds were super important to attract beneficial insects. Do not over-water them.
• Growing herbs and flowers helps confuse pests by diffusing the aroma of a large concentration of one type of plant.

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Spring 2022

endive, spring mix lettuce

Because I make salads so frequently, I figured this spring was the time to grow some lettuce. Lettuce thrives in cooler temperatures and has shallow roots, so it’s a good crop for container gardening in the spring and fall. In the summertime, plant lettuce in areas of dappled light so it stays cooler in partial shade.

growing tip takeaways

• Lettuce thrives in cooler temperatures, which contributes to a better flavor
• Only 6 inches of potting soil is needed for lettuce because it has shallow roots. Therefore, it’s a really economical crop to grow in terms of the amount of potting soil you have to buy. 

 

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Summer 2021

Cayenne peppers, banana peppers, thyme, sage, bell peppers, Ichiban eggplants, Sungold cherry tomatoes, Husky red cherry tomatoes

Patience and optimism were the name of the game in 2021. It was a rough start because some seedlings purchased from Home Depot had been infested with pests. The only solution was to uproot the problem plants and start over in a few cases.  

growing tip takeaways

• Cayenne peppers don’t fully mature in 3-gallon containers. My final yields were jam-packed with seeds. 
• Sungold cherry tomatoes are still my favorite variety for their sweetness. Grew some husky reds in 2021 and wasn’t very impressed with their flavor. They were just “okay”, not very sweet.
• Bell peppers do better in partial shade and do not like hot temperatures. All the pepper flowers fell off during a heat wave.

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Summer 2020

heirloom cherry tomatoes, sage

Summer 2020 was challenging as NYC was shut down beginning in March. Going to Home Depot to buy seedlings wasn’t an option, so I had to get creative. I ended up extracting some seeds from store-bought tomatoes, then planting them indoors. Someone told me that store-bought tomatoes wouldn’t produce fruit, and they were completely wrong. 

I also managed to find a sage seedling somewhere, so it got me started with growing herbs. Sage frequently looks not-so-good in grocery stores, and it grows super fast, so it’s perfect for container gardening at home.

growing tip takeaways

• Growing tomatoes from store-bought seeds DOES work, but they do behave a little differently. It depends on the brand and how they are treated in production.

A weird thing that happened in the 2020 growing season was a ripening problem. Very few tomatoes ripened. I thought I was doing something wrong, but tomato growers I know from all parts of the country (as far as Seattle) had the same problem. So, decided it was time to make Fried Green Tomato Bites.

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Summer 2019

Sungold cherry tomatoes, Tabasco peppers, Shishito peppers, kale, Thai basil

This was the year I felt somewhat confident and inspired to expand my container gardening operation. I started getting a little bit of strategy and upgraded to 3-gallon containers for cherry tomatoes, Shishito peppers, and Tabasco peppers. I used 1-gallon clay pots for herbs and kale.

growing tip takeaways

• Cherry tomatoes are the easiest thing to grow in container gardening. For ultimate sweetness, try Sungolds. 
• “Yellow” cherry tomatoes are actually orange. 
• Shishito peppers grow very easily in 3-gallon containers, even with only 4 hours of sunlight per day.
• Tabasco peppers like higher temperatures and grow very abundantly in 3-gallon containers with 5 to 6 hours of sunlight per day.
• Pruning is when you strategically cut certain growth to stimulate more growth in other areas. Consider the length of your growing season. You have to start planting early in the season to reap the benefits of pepper pruning.  
• You can grow small kale in 9-inch pots. Harvest it ASAP before the green mites get to them. 
• Kale (and all leafy greens) don’t do well in hot weather. Grow kale in spring, fall, or even on the cusp of mild winter conditions.

 

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Summer 2018

collard greens, kale

This was my rookie year. I literally just bought some seedlings, soil, and clay pots, then put everything out on the balcony without any real strategy to see what would happen. 

growing tip takeaways

• Small pots are only good for flowers and herbs. As a rookie, I tried growing collard greens in 9-inch clay pots, but they really needed more room. The amount of herbs you need for cooking is sufficient for the herb yields of small pots.  Also, use small pots for marigolds  (which behave as a natural pesticide to attract beneficial insects).
• Clay pots are beneficial because they help your soil dry out in between waterings, which is beneficial to plants’ roots. However, in the really hot sun (especially during a heatwave), you need to water plants in clay pots much more often.
• Do proper research to know when to harvest your crops. Because you’re growing in containers, size is not the only indication. I left many of my baby eggplants on the vine too long, so they were too seedy to enjoy eating.