GrowingHQ

Vegetables

47 vegetables, grouped by how they behave rather than alphabetically — plants in one group share a rotation slot, and usually their problems too.

The vegetable plot in August

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Next month: 4 more jobs open in September. See what changes

Start from your situation

One thing decides most of it: rooting depth

Almost every vegetable disappointment in a container comes from the same place. A carrot in a shallow trough is not a smaller carrot, it is a forked one; a parsnip in fifteen centimetres is a stump. Depth is recorded per plant and it is the column worth checking before anything else — it is in the comparison table at the foot of this page, and on every profile.

Browse by group

Fruiting vegetables

Frost-tender crops racing a British summer. Under cover they are straightforward; outdoors they depend on the year.

Cucurbits

Thirsty, greedy and productive, with separate male and female flowers that need insects to bring them together.

Roots

The group where rooting depth decides everything. A carrot in a shallow trough is not a smaller carrot, it is a forked one.

Tubers

Grown from seed tubers rather than seed, and organised around whether you want earlies or maincrops.

Alliums

Long-season crops sharing one soil-borne disease that permanently changes what a plot can grow.

Legumes

One family, four levels of hardiness — from broad beans that stand a winter to French beans killed by the first frost.

Brassicas

All one species, bred into different shapes, which is why they share every pest and one rotation slot.

Salad leaves

Fast, shallow-rooted and productive in almost any container — the crops that suit a small space best.

Leafy greens

Spring and autumn crops that bolt in the long days of midsummer.

Others

Compare all 47 vegetables side by side

Light, spacing, minimum pot depth and container suitability in fixed columns, so you can run an eye down one of them. This is the view the card grids above cannot give.

47 plants
PlantTypeLightSpacingMin. pot depthIn a container
AsparagusAsparagus officinalisVegetableSome care neededFull sun30–45 cm60 cmunsuitable
AubergineSolanum melongenaVegetableDemandingFull sun45–60 cm30 cmwell suited
BeetrootBeta vulgarisVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade10 cm20–25 cmwell suited
Broad beanVicia fabaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade20–23 cm30 cmworkable
BroccoliBrassica oleraceaVegetableSome care neededFull sun, Partial shade30–45 cm30 cmworkable
Brussels sproutsBrassica oleraceaVegetableSome care neededFull sun60–75 cm45 cmunsuitable
CabbageBrassica oleraceaVegetableSome care neededFull sun, Partial shade30–45 cm30 cmworkable
CarrotDaucus carota subsp. sativusVegetableSome care neededFull sun, Partial shade5–8 cm30 cmwell suited
CauliflowerBrassica oleraceaVegetableDemandingFull sun, Partial shade60–75 cm40 cmmarginal
CeleriacApium graveolens var. rapaceumVegetableDemandingFull sun, Partial shade30–38 cm30 cmmarginal
CeleryApium graveolensVegetableDemandingFull sun, Partial shade23–27 cm25 cmmarginal
ChardBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarisVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade25–30 cm25 cmwell suited
ChicoryCichorium intybusVegetableSome care neededFull sun, Partial shade25–30 cm45 cmworkable
Chilli pepperCapsicum annuumVegetableSome care neededFull sun40–45 cm20 cmwell suited
CourgetteCucurbita pepoVegetableStraightforwardFull sun90 cm35 cmworkable
CucumberCucumis sativusVegetableSome care neededFull sun45–60 cm30 cmworkable
EndiveCichorium endiviaVegetableSome care neededFull sun, Partial shade25–30 cm20 cmworkable
FennelFoeniculum vulgareHerbSome care neededFull sun30–45 cm30 cmworkable
French beanPhaseolus vulgarisVegetableStraightforwardFull sun15–20 cm25 cmwell suited
GarlicAllium sativumVegetableStraightforwardFull sun15 cm20 cmworkable
Globe artichokeCynara cardunculus var. scolymusVegetableSome care neededFull sun90–120 cm60 cmmarginal
Jerusalem artichokeHelianthus tuberosusVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade30–45 cm40 cmwell suited
KaleBrassica oleraceaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade45 cm30 cmwell suited
KohlrabiBrassica oleraceaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade25–30 cm25 cmwell suited
Lamb's lettuceValerianella locustaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade10–15 cm12 cmwell suited
Land cressBarbarea vernaVegetableStraightforwardPartial shade, Dappled shade, Full sun15–20 cm15 cmwell suited
LeekAllium ampeloprasumVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade15–23 cm30 cmworkable
LettuceLactuca sativaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade15–30 cm15 cmwell suited
OnionAllium cepaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun10 cm20 cmmarginal
Pak choiBrassica rapaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade20–25 cm20 cmwell suited
ParsnipPastinaca sativaVegetableSome care neededFull sun15–20 cm45 cmmarginal
PeaPisum sativumVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade5–8 cm25 cmworkable
PotatoSolanum tuberosumVegetableStraightforwardFull sun30–38 cm40 cmwell suited
PumpkinCucurbita maximaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun150–200 cm45 cmunsuitable
RadishRaphanus sativusVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade2.5–5 cm15 cmwell suited
RocketEruca vesicariaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade10–15 cm15 cmwell suited
Runner beanPhaseolus coccineusVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade15–20 cm35 cmworkable
ShallotAllium cepa var. aggregatumVegetableStraightforwardFull sun15–20 cm20 cmwell suited
SorrelRumex acetosaHerbStraightforwardPartial shade, Full sun, Dappled shade30–38 cm25 cmwell suited
SpinachSpinacia oleraceaVegetableSome care neededFull sun, Partial shade15 cm20 cmwell suited
Spring onionAllium cepaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade2–5 cm15 cmwell suited
SwedeBrassica napusVegetableStraightforwardFull sun23–30 cm40 cmmarginal
Sweet pepperCapsicum annuumVegetableSome care neededFull sun45 cm25 cmwell suited
SweetcornZea maysVegetableSome care neededFull sun35–45 cm45 cmmarginal
TomatoSolanum lycopersicumVegetableSome care neededFull sun45–60 cm25 cmwell suited
TurnipBrassica rapaVegetableStraightforwardFull sun, Partial shade15–20 cm25 cmworkable
Winter squashCucurbita maximaVegetableSome care neededFull sun120–180 cm45 cmmarginal

Rotation, briefly

Plants in one group above share a rotation slot because they share soil-borne problems — clubroot follows brassicas, white rot follows alliums, and both persist for years. Moving a group around the plot each year is the whole of home-scale rotation, and it matters far more for those two families than for anything else here.

Ready-made lists from this group

Published only where the filter genuinely narrows the category. A plain container list is not here, because forty-two of these forty-seven vegetables grow in a pot — the question with an answer is how deep it has to be.