You don’t need a traditional vegetable garden to grow an impressive harvest of root crops.

If you have a sunny patio, balcony, deck, or driveway, a simple plastic laundry basket can become a surprisingly productive vegetable planter.

Laundry baskets are especially useful because they’re inexpensive, lightweight before filling, and already have plenty of openings for drainage. Line the inside with a porous material to stop potting mix from escaping, fill it with loose container mix, and you have a deep growing space that can work beautifully for many underground crops.

The idea isn’t just a garden hack. University of Maryland Extension has demonstrated sweet potatoes growing successfully in a newspaper-lined plastic laundry basket.

The secret is matching the crop to the depth and width of your basket.

Here are 15 of the easiest choices to try.

1. Carrots

Carrots are one of the best reasons to experiment with laundry-basket gardening.

Instead of forcing roots through heavy, rocky garden soil, you can fill the basket with a light, loose growing medium that allows carrots to develop more freely.

Choose your variety according to the basket’s depth.

Deep baskets can accommodate longer carrots, while shorter or round cultivars are better choices for shallower containers.

Sow carrot seeds directly rather than transplanting seedlings. Once they germinate, thin them carefully so each root has enough room to expand.

Crowding is one of the quickest ways to end up with lots of foliage and disappointingly skinny carrots.

Best basket: Medium to deep.

Growing tip: Keep moisture relatively consistent while the roots are developing.

2. Radishes

Want something fast?

Plant radishes.

Some varieties can be ready remarkably quickly, making them one of the most satisfying vegetables for beginner container gardeners.

They’re also relatively shallow-rooted compared with carrots and parsnips, so you don’t need your biggest laundry basket.

Fill the container with loose growing mix, sow directly, and thin the seedlings according to the variety’s recommended spacing.

Try succession planting, too.

Instead of sowing the entire basket on one day, plant a section and then another section a week or two later.

You’ll get a longer harvest rather than dozens of radishes becoming ready simultaneously.

Best basket: Shallow to medium.

Growing tip: Harvest promptly once roots reach usable size.

3. Beets

Beets earn their space twice.

You can harvest the swollen roots while also using healthy young leaves as edible greens.

They don’t require the extraordinary depth demanded by long carrots or parsnips, making them an excellent choice for an average laundry basket.

Sow directly into loose growing medium.

Don’t be surprised if what appears to be one beet seed produces several seedlings. Beet “seeds” are commonly clusters containing more than one seed.

Thin the seedlings so the developing roots have enough room to expand.

University of Maryland includes beets among vegetables suitable for container gardening.

Best basket: Medium depth.

Growing tip: Don’t overcrowd them if large roots are your goal.

4. Turnips

Turnips are another excellent crop when you want results without waiting all season.

The rounded roots don’t need the extreme depth of parsnips, and the leafy tops are edible as well.

Turnips generally prefer cooler growing conditions, making them particularly useful for spring and fall container gardens.

Sow seeds directly and thin them after germination.

This is important.

A laundry basket can hold an enormous number of seedlings, but that doesn’t mean all of them should stay there.

Each turnip needs physical space for its root to swell.

Best basket: Medium depth.

Growing tip: Grow during cooler weather for better-quality roots.

5. Potatoes

Potatoes make container gardening particularly fun because you don’t really know what’s waiting underneath until harvest time.

Use certified disease-free seed potatoes rather than relying on random grocery-store potatoes.

Potatoes need considerably more growing space than radishes or beets, so choose a very large, deep basket.

University of Maryland considers potatoes a more challenging container crop and suggests around 30 gallons of growing-medium volume.

That means a small laundry basket isn’t going to cut it.

But if you have a large sturdy hamper-style basket, the harvest can be enormous fun.

When the crop is finished, empty the growing medium onto a tarp and search for your potatoes.

Best basket: Extra-large and deep.

Growing tip: Don’t cram too many seed potatoes into one container.

6. Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes may be the ultimate laundry-basket crop.

University of Maryland Extension has documented two sweet potato plants grown in a newspaper-lined plastic laundry basket, followed by the resulting harvest.

Unlike regular potatoes, sweet potatoes are typically started from slips.

Plant them in a large container filled with loose growing medium and position the basket somewhere warm and sunny.

The vines will eventually spill dramatically over the sides, creating a surprisingly attractive patio plant while the edible storage roots develop below.

Don’t overcrowd the container.

Sweet potatoes need room.

Best basket: Large and deep.

Growing tip: Give them warmth, sunshine, and a long growing season.

7. Bulb Onions

Onions don’t need an exceptionally deep container.

What they appreciate is surface area.

That makes a wide laundry basket ideal.

Depending on your growing method and location, onions can be started from seed, transplants, or sets.

Give each plant enough room for its bulb to expand.

Also choose the correct onion type for your region. Bulb formation is influenced by day length, so short-day, intermediate-day, and long-day onions aren’t interchangeable everywhere.

If full-sized bulbs seem too ambitious, grow the plants closer together and harvest some early as green onions.

Best basket: Wide and medium depth.

Growing tip: Don’t bury developing bulbs excessively deeply.

8. Garlic

One garlic bulb can provide enough cloves to start an entire container.

Separate a healthy planting bulb into individual cloves and plant each with its pointed end facing upward.

Space them adequately rather than packing the basket completely full.

In many climates, garlic is planted during fall and harvested the following year.

Container-grown garlic may require additional winter protection in very cold climates because the roots aren’t insulated by a large volume of surrounding garden soil.

A wide basket works particularly well because you can grow multiple bulbs without requiring enormous depth.

Best basket: Wide and medium depth.

Growing tip: Use garlic intended for planting and choose a type appropriate for your climate.

9. Parsnips

Parsnips require more patience than radishes.

They also require considerably more depth.

Their long taproots develop best in loose growing medium without stones, compacted clumps, or other obstacles.

That makes a deep laundry basket filled with container mix potentially ideal.

Sow seeds directly because root crops with long taproots generally don’t appreciate transplanting.

Then be patient.

Parsnip germination can be relatively slow.

Once seedlings appear, thin them carefully so each plant has plenty of room.

Best basket: Your deepest basket.

Growing tip: Don’t use shallow containers unless you’re growing a specifically compact variety.

10. Rutabagas

Rutabagas are sometimes confused with turnips, but they’re generally larger and take longer to mature.

They’re another useful cool-season crop.

Because the roots become substantial, resist the temptation to pack dozens of plants into one basket.

Sow directly and thin aggressively.

Five properly spaced rutabagas are far more useful than 20 plants competing for the same growing space.

Keep the growing medium consistently moist during root development without allowing it to remain saturated.

Best basket: Medium to deep.

Growing tip: Give each plant plenty of room for its root to swell.

11. Green Onions

Here’s one for practically any laundry basket.

Green onions don’t need enormous depth because you’re harvesting them before large bulbs develop.

University of Maryland notes that small vegetables such as scallions can grow in containers with roughly 4–6 inches of growing-medium depth.

That makes them perfect if your basket is too shallow for carrots or parsnips.

You can also grow them relatively closely together.

Harvest individual plants as needed, leaving the others to continue growing.

Best basket: Almost any basket.

Growing tip: Succession sow for a steady supply.

12. Daikon Radishes

Don’t treat daikon like an ordinary little round radish.

Some varieties produce impressively long roots.

That means depth matters.

Choose your deepest basket and fill it with particularly loose growing medium.

Alternatively, select shorter daikon cultivars specifically suited to limited growing spaces.

Sow directly and thin carefully.

If seedlings are crowded together, their long roots can’t develop properly.

Daikon generally performs best during cooler conditions, making it useful for spring or fall patio growing.

Best basket: Deep.

Growing tip: Match the cultivar’s mature root length to your container depth.

13. Short or Round Carrots

Don’t have a deep basket?

You can still grow carrots.

Instead of choosing a long-rooted variety, look for compact carrots bred to produce short, chunky, or almost spherical roots.

Round Parisian-style carrots can be particularly fun.

Because their roots don’t need to travel far downward, they’re much better suited to shallow containers than traditional long carrots.

You still need loose growing medium and appropriate spacing.

And don’t confuse naturally compact carrot varieties with the “baby-cut” carrots sold in supermarkets, which are often simply larger carrots cut into smaller shapes.

Best basket: Shallow to medium.

Growing tip: Variety selection matters more than container depth here.

14. Ginger

Technically, ginger isn’t a root.

The edible portion is a rhizome, an underground stem.

But it’s such a good crop for wide containers that it deserves inclusion.

Unlike parsnips and carrots, ginger doesn’t need exceptional depth.

Its rhizomes spread horizontally, which means a broad laundry basket can provide exactly the kind of growing space it wants.

Plant healthy seed rhizomes relatively shallowly in rich, well-draining growing medium.

Give the plants warmth and consistent moisture.

In cold climates, start ginger indoors before moving the container outside once temperatures are reliably warm.

Best basket: Wide rather than exceptionally deep.

Growing tip: Ginger loves warmth and has a relatively long growing season.

15. Turmeric

Turmeric is another rhizome rather than a true root vegetable.

Like ginger, however, it’s beautifully suited to wide containers.

Plant healthy pieces of rhizome in loose, rich growing medium and give them plenty of warmth.

Above the soil, turmeric produces lush tropical-looking leaves that can make your laundry basket look more like an ornamental planter than a vegetable garden.

Below the surface, clusters of vivid orange-yellow rhizomes develop.

When the growing season finishes, carefully empty the basket and search through the growing medium for your harvest.

Best basket: Wide and medium-depth.

Growing tip: Start early in cooler climates so the rhizomes have enough time to develop.

How to Turn a Laundry Basket Into a Vegetable Planter

The transformation is surprisingly simple.

Start with a sturdy basket made from a material suitable for your intended food-growing use. Avoid badly deteriorated plastic or containers that previously held questionable chemicals.

Next, line the inside.

Laundry-basket openings are generally too large to hold potting mix by themselves.

Use a porous liner such as appropriate landscape fabric or untreated burlap. University of Maryland recommends porous materials over large container drainage openings so the growing medium stays inside while water can escape.

Then fill the basket with container growing mix.

Don’t use dense backyard soil.

Water thoroughly and allow excess water to drain before planting.

Don’t Put Rocks in the Bottom

You may have heard that adding rocks or broken pottery to the bottom of a container improves drainage.

Skip it.

University of Maryland specifically advises against adding gravel, rocks, or pottery shards to container bottoms because they reduce valuable growing space and don’t provide the drainage improvement gardeners often expect.

Your laundry basket already has abundant drainage openings.

What it needs is a porous liner and suitable growing medium.

Save every available inch for roots.

Choose Your Basket According to the Crop

This is where many laundry-basket gardens go wrong.

Gardeners choose the crop first and then try to force it into whatever container happens to be available.

Reverse that thinking.

Have a shallow basket?

Grow radishes, green onions, beets, or compact carrots.

Have a medium-depth basket?

Try turnips, onions, garlic, rutabagas, or ordinary carrots.

Have an exceptionally deep container?

That’s where parsnips, daikon, potatoes, and long carrots become more realistic.

Have a very wide basket?

Consider ginger or turmeric.

Matching the plant to the container is much easier than trying to make an unsuitable container work.

The Biggest Mistake: Crowding

Your carrot seedlings emerge.

There are hundreds of them.

They look fantastic.

And you can’t bring yourself to remove any.

Don’t fall into this trap.

Root vegetables need physical underground space.

Carrots planted shoulder-to-shoulder can’t magically produce full-sized roots in the same space.

Neither can beets, turnips, radishes, or rutabagas.

Thin seedlings according to the recommended spacing for your particular crop and variety.

If you’re worried that pulling seedlings will disturb neighboring roots, snip unwanted plants at soil level.

It’s painful for approximately five minutes.

Then you’ll be glad you did it when harvest arrives.

Laundry Baskets Dry Out Faster Than Garden Beds

Those dozens of drainage openings have a downside.

The growing medium can dry relatively quickly.

Sun, heat, wind, container size, crop size, and the basket material all affect water loss.

During hot weather, container vegetables may require frequent watering—sometimes daily.

Don’t rely on a rigid schedule.

Push a finger into the growing medium and check what’s actually happening beneath the surface.

Water thoroughly when needed, allowing excess moisture to escape.

The goal is even moisture with good drainage, not constantly saturated soil.

Put the Basket in Position Before Filling It

An empty laundry basket weighs almost nothing.

A large laundry basket containing several gallons of wet growing medium weighs considerably more.

Decide where you want it first.

Then fill it.

This is especially important if you’re growing potatoes or sweet potatoes in an oversized basket.

If you want the option to move large containers later, consider putting them on an appropriately rated wheeled plant caddy before filling.

Don’t discover halfway through summer that your 60-pound vegetable planter is sitting in the wrong place.

Give Your Vegetables Enough Sun

Most productive vegetable crops need substantial usable light.

A patio that appears bright isn’t necessarily sunny.

Watch the space over an entire day.

Buildings, fences, trees, balconies, and neighboring structures can create long periods of shade.

Warm-season crops such as sweet potatoes and ginger particularly appreciate warmth and good light.

Cool-season crops such as radishes and turnips may tolerate somewhat less intense conditions, especially when temperatures rise.

The advantage of container growing is flexibility.

If necessary—and if you can safely move the basket—you can experiment with different locations.

Don’t Forget Fertilizer

Laundry baskets don’t contain an unlimited reservoir of nutrients.

Roots are confined to whatever growing medium you’ve provided.

Frequent watering can also move nutrients through containers.

Use an appropriate vegetable fertilizer according to the label directions and the requirements of the particular crop.

Avoid assuming that more fertilizer means bigger roots.

Excessive nitrogen can sometimes encourage abundant leafy growth at the expense of the underground crop you’re actually trying to harvest.

You want balanced, healthy growth.

Not the world’s largest collection of carrot leaves.

The Three Easiest Crops for Beginners

If this is your first laundry-basket garden, don’t start with 15 crops.

Start with three:

Radishes

They grow quickly enough to keep beginners interested.

Green onions

They’re forgiving and don’t need a deep container.

Short carrots

They’re fun to harvest and perfect for demonstrating why loose container mix can be so useful for root crops.

Once you’ve learned how quickly your basket dries out and how much sun your patio receives, move on to larger crops.

The Most Fun Crop to Harvest

Potatoes and sweet potatoes are difficult to beat.

For months, you see foliage.

You know something is happening beneath the surface.

But you can’t see exactly what.

Then harvest day arrives.

Tip the growing medium onto a tarp and start searching.

University of Maryland’s laundry-basket demonstration produced 14 sweet potatoes of varying sizes from two plants.

That’s a pretty impressive second career for something designed to carry socks.

15 Laundry-Basket Crops at a Glance

Final Thoughts

A vegetable garden doesn’t have to begin with a shovel.

Sometimes it begins with a laundry basket.

Line a sturdy basket with porous material, fill it with quality container mix, and suddenly you have a growing space for carrots, radishes, beets, turnips, onions, garlic, and plenty more.

For larger baskets, you can get considerably more ambitious.

University of Maryland’s successful sweet-potato laundry-basket demonstration shows just how productive an unconventional container can become when the crop, growing medium, and container are well matched.

Just remember the four essentials:

Choose the right depth.

Don’t overcrowd the plants.

Keep the growing medium appropriately moist.

Give the crop enough light.

Do those things and an ordinary laundry basket sitting on a sunny patio can become something much more useful.

It can become your smallest—and possibly most surprising—vegetable garden.