I recently had my house repainted after a good ten years of tolerating bad, deteriorating paint. The necessary step left me with an opportunity: tons of empty 5-gallon buckets.
I decided to fill the buckets with some potting soil and sow a few seeds to see how a fully grown plant would look inside it. To my surprise, it looked absolutely fantastic!
In this article, I’ll be walking you through a list of vegetables you can grow in 5-gallon buckets for a perfectly compact garden. Let’s get right into it!
14 – Peppers
Green pepper
Green pepper
Peppers are extremely easy to grow and maintain in buckets. You can sow pepper seeds directly into potting soil after the last frost date but keep in mind to drill holes at the bottom of the bucket for drainage.
13 – Onions
Potted onion seedlings with lush green sprouts in greenhouse
Potted Onions
Though you’ll be surprised to hear this, a 5-gallon bucket can actually grow up to 10 onions at a time!
They’re an excellent source of vitamins and antioxidants. Plant bulbs 8-10 weeks before the last frost date and enjoy a good summer harvest.
12 – Tomatoes
Tomatoes
Tomatoes can be grown quite well in buckets. Sow seeds directly into the potting soil 8-10 weeks before the last frost date and water them very often. Juicy tomatoes will call for large amounts of water and a lot of mulch.
11 – Carrots
Carrots
Carrots
Since 5-gallon buckets are quite deep, you can even plant vegetables that grow beneath the soil like carrots, and have no problem.
Sow carrot seeds around early fall 3-4 weeks before the last frost date and let the light frost enhance their flavor for a sweeter harvest.
10 – Peas
Peas
Peas are extremely easy to grow and they don’t require as much attention as some of the other needy vegetables. Because they tend to climb, I personally planted peas in my garden to add some vertical interest.
Early spring planting, around 6-8 weeks before the last frost date is ideal for planting peas because they thrive in slightly cooler temperatures.
9 – Spinach
Spinach
Another tasty vegetable you can grow in 5-gallon buckets: spinach. Consider early spring planting, 5-7 weeks before the last frost date since cooler temperatures will be beneficial for enhancing the overall flavor of the leaves. Ideally, you should be able to fit around 18-20 spinach plants in a bucket (if planted densely).
8 – Kale
