Patio Gardening 101
This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through links on my site, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.
(Updated on March 3, 2025)
This is a gardening post about the ins and outs of patio gardening, also known as Patio Gardening 101.
Some of us have to garden on our patios due to injury, disability, or personal preference. I’m going to show you various kinds of patio gardens. I have had a patio-only garden for over seven years, and it is thriving.
If you choose, you can have your whole garden in one large container. Given your plants’ preference for sun/part sun/shade/part shade, you must decide which plants go in which container.
You could plant full-sun plants in one container. Put part sun in another container. And so on.
Patio Gardening 101: Sun Gardens
Some of the most common choices for full-sun perennials in containers are:
- Hens & Chicks (Sempervivium)
- Lamb’s ear
- Miniature Roses
- Artemisia
- Lavender
- Dianthus
- Hibiscus
- Coneflower
- Shasta daisy
Patio Gardening 101: Shade Gardens:
Shade gardens are plants that require full shade and no direct sunlight.
- Hellebores – early bloomers; partial shade
- Ferns – try a Japanese painted fern, maidenhair, or deer fern
- Begonias – try ‘Bonfire’, Rex, or tuberous begonias
- Hosta – try a miniature variety such as ‘Tiny Mice’
- Japanese Maples – a single specimen makes a strong statement
- Bamboo – Phyllostachys nigra offers structure and height
Learn more about shade gardens here.
Herb Gardens:
Herb gardens are generally easier to plan because most herbs thrive in the sun.
Patio Gardening 101: 7 Best Herbs For Container Gardening
- Basil
- Greek Oregano
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Mint
- Parsley
- Lemon Balm
One of my favorite herbs for container gardens is lemon verbena because of its strong, sweet scent. Another is pineapple sage.
Rosemary and chives are also regular favorites of mine. I like to have a container of chives just outside my door to snip for meals such as a baked potato.
Patio Gardening 101: Vegetable Garden Guide
Here is a vegetable container garden guide for exposure for vegetables. It details which plants desire exposures of full sun to partial shade.
Below is a graphic of raised bed vegetable gardening that you might want to examine before planning your garden.
Thrillers, Fillers, & Spillers:
You will likely want to incorporate plants of various heights to add interest to your garden. Above is my raised garden, filled with Lamb’s Ear, hosta, mints, iris, and wild violets.
You may want to follow the Thriller, Filler, and Spiller concept below when putting various plants into a container.
Thrillers:
The thrillers in the container gardens below are the red and yellow Gerbera daisies, as well as the alliums that are not yet in bloom.
Thrillers are tall, upright plants that add height to the arrangement. They are a great way to add a vertical aspect to your containers.
Thriller Plant Options:
- Ornamental grasses
- Alocasia
- Canna lily
- Yucca
- Aster
- Coleus
- Cosmos
- Dracaena
Fillers:
This is an example of filler plants.
Fillers cover plants that spread to fill the gaps between the thrillers and spillers.
Plant Options:
- Geranium
- Petunia
- Pansy
- Coleus
- Dusty miller
- Begonia
- Pentas
- Lantana
Spillers:
This is an example of spiller plants.
Spiller plants spill over the edges of the container and cascade down. Such as the purple verbena you see above on my patio.
Spiller Plant Options:
- Allysum
- Million bells
- Fuchsia
- Helichrysum
- Sweet potato vine
- Mandevilla
- Nasturtium
- Morning glory
- Bacopa
- String of pearls
This is my 1st time visiting this site and I am impressed with the abundance of information and how easy it makes it for one to follow instructions.
A nature lover myself I truly enjoy your site
What a great post Brenda! Right now I have an entire yard to plant in but when I get my tiny/small home I might not! I love, love, love the cozy feel of a beautiful patio garden. The thriller, filler, spiller technique is awesome!
Tania
This is a great post Brenda..I do a lot of planting in pots now and I have two raised beds…I hope I can print this out…Thanks!
This is the best helpful post ever. Love all your post…this one most informative. Every day I can't wait to see what you have for me to enjoy and learn from, thank you Brenda…..for being YOU!!!!!!
Oops…should be "grow" not grown.
This is a very helpful information. We made 2 raised garden beds a couple of years ago and hope to add more this spring. I haven't had much luck with putting tomato plants in large pots which I think were 5 gallon, but I'm going to try again. I do grown basil in pots. Love that herb container in your photos!
Thanks for all the helpful information on gardening. I will certainly be using some of your ideas.
Container gardening is wonderful!
Such an inspiring gardening post Brenda! I love container gardens and you have shown some beautiful ones here. The plant advice and information will be useful for all kinds of other garden growers too. Happy Spring!
Helen xox
We awoke to 8 inches of snow and our east-west interstate closed from border to border. Wyoming is a great place to live but I miss spring. Your post was timely for me, I can think of spring as I watch the snow continue.
Thanks for the info. You did a wonderful job putting it all together for us. We are in a winter storm watch for today & tomorrow morning. So, thinking about the flower garden is wonderful.
I want to try some container gardening…looks easier than digging in the ground maybe. Thanks for this. Sheila
Thank you for putting this together! We've got to wait until May 15th or so to plant…but it sure is nice to start thinking about it. We are getting snow tomorrow! 😉
Brenda, thank you for taking the time to post this article for all of us plant lovers. It was quite informative.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful info. Such lovely gardens.
Brenda, I needed this post SO much! Happy Easter to you and the darling fur people.
Hi Brenda, what an amazing gardening primer you've put together. Wonderful resource and I'm going to bookmark it so I can refer back to it when I start my upcoming, small-scale gardening.
My pleasure to pop over and look around.
Happy day.
Wow I love all of these!
Great info Brenda! Thanks for putting it all together in this post!
Linda
Those are some super cool water features!!!!
Love this. The container gardens are all amazing. Make yourself a water garden like the koi one and add a small pulp and you have a water feature. So fun.