How To Make An Edible Planter

While ornamental plants and pots look great, what if you could harvest food from your planters while still having them look decorative? Learn how you can make an edible planter and grow food in disguise.

I have a large garden where I can grow a lot of vegetables and herbs, but I am always looking for an extra spot to squeeze in just one more plant.

Some of you may not even have a garden, so finding a place to grow your own food can be really difficult. Most homes and apartments have enough room for a hanging basket or a pot of flowers.

To save space you can grow a planter that looks ornamental but produces food! I grew these two edible planters and placed them in front of my greenhouse where they look great and thrive.

How To Make An Edible Planter

Growing food in a planter is different than growing it in your garden. For instance, you have to find smaller plant varieties to grow.

I am going to walk you through each step of creating your own DIY edible planter starting with choosing a pot/planter.

How To Choose Your Planter

For my planters I chose to put them in these thick walled flower pots that I have.

You can use almost any pot you have whether it's plastic, hypertufa, ceramic, or glazed terracotta. The only pot I would not recommend using is an unglazed terracotta pot because they don't hold moisture well.

Every pot you use should have a small hole in the bottom for drainage. If your pot does not have this hole the pot will become waterlogged and your plants will most likely die.

If you really want your pot to stand out you can opt for a bright colored pot. I liked the brown color for my planter as I felt it went well with my plants.

Filling Your Planter With Soil

Make sure to fill your planter with high quality potting soil so your plants stay nice and green through the whole growing season.

I made my own potting soil mix which is filled with so many nutrients for your plants! You can find my potting soil recipe right here.

If you wind up buying potting soil I do recommend use Trifecta+ fertilizer. This fertilizer is the secret ingredient in my potting soil mix.

Trifecta+ fertilizer is a once per season fertilizer, and it is filled with plant nutrients along with beneficial organisms. My plants did so well in this planter and I know Trifecta+ was the reason.

Choosing Edible Plants

Now we get to the fun part, plants! While most vegetable plants wouldn't go well in a planter there are some select varieties that do.

Here is a list of edible plants that would grow well in a planter due to their size and appearance. All of these plants are heirloom and I will link them so you can grow your own.

Micro Tomatoes

Micro tomatoes are tiny plants that get absolutely filled with small tomatoes during the growing season. You can learn more about growing micro tomatoes in my post here.

Basil

Basil is a great ornamental and edible plant. If you keep harvesting basil leaves you can shape the plant so that it looks nice in your planter

Cayenne Peppers

Pepper plants look really great especially when they are covered in ripe peppers. Almost any pepper plant would look great, but I planted cayenne peppers in my planter.

Micro Peas

Micro sized pea plants look like tiny bushes and they would look great in an early spring planter. These plants will die off during high heat so plant them early.

Fennel

Fennel heads and their feather tops look and smell great!

Mint

Mint can take over your garden if you plant it in the ground, so it's already a great candidate for container planting.

Buzz Buttons

Buzz buttons produce little yellow flowers with a big surprise. When you eat these flowers they make your mouth tingle! You can learn more about growing buzz buttons here.

Calendula

Calendula flowers are edible and they look great. These compact plants would look great in a planter.

Amaranth

This amaranth variety has variegated leaves that are bursting with color and would highlight any pot.

Planting Your Planter

You may have to start some of these plants indoors with your other vegetable starts. You could also go to your local greenhouse to find your own combination of plants.

For my planter I chose to plant a micro tomato, cayenne pepper, and basil plant in each pot. I grew all of these plants from seed and then planted them in the pot.

I made sure each plant had a 6 inch area in the pot to grow and spread. This pot quickly filled in.

All these plants grew well together as they are companion plants. They all like the same temperature and grew great in front of the greenhouse where its nice and warm.

Keeping Your Edible Planter Healthy

To keep your planter looking great you need to keep your plants healthy. The number one thing to keep an eye on is water.

Keep your planter well watered and try to keep the moisture consistent. Because I used Trifecta+ fertilizer my plants did not need extra fertilizer throughout the growing season.

Once my basil started to grow tall I made sure to keep it plant trimmed well. All the basil trimmings were used in the kitchen for things like pesto and pizza.

Around July my tomatoes started to ripen and I kept picking the tiny orange orbs off the plant. You can leave these tomatoes on the plant for color right until you need them.

Soon after the tomatoes, my cayenne peppers should start ripening and add a bright red hue to the planter.

My pepper plants started to grow tall and fall over so I decided to put a wooden stake in the soil and attach the plant to it with twine.

I liked that each of these plants still looked great even though I continued to harvest food from them.

Conclusion

These edible planters looked great and I got to harvest a lot of fresh produce from them. Find some of your favorite plants and make your own edible planter!

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