These are easy choices for small gardens. Choose a five-gallon volume, use good potting soil, and put one plant per container. Tomatoes grown in containers will need extra care in staking and trimming off floppy vines.

Other than that, keep an eye on the water, feed once a week with balanced fertilizer, and enjoy the fruits of your labor as often as possible.

Herbs are classic container plants. A one gallon volume is a good home for most plants, as long as you keep using them throughout the summer so they don't get top heavy. Ice cream buckets, milk jugs, and so on keep your container garden a reasonable price and portable, too.

Use good potting soil, ensure there are plenty of drainage holes, and water daily during warm summer days. Feed often (at least weekly).

Herbs in containers tend to get sunburned, so provide them with a little shelter during the hottest part of the day. (I put my herbs on the north side of my tomato buckets, so they'd be shaded but get plenty of light all day.) If you have your containers on the deck, watch that the heat reflecting off the wood doesn't fry your plants.

Basil is perfect. An ice cream bucket can be a comfortable home for up to six plants. Oregano does well, too. Sage, thyme, and even lavender are good container herbs. Rosemary in a container can be wintered over in the house very easily. Use good, strong starter plants for the best success. The key is to put multiple plants in each container--they do better with friendly neighbors.

Best part: move the containers into the house in September and enjoy your herbs much longer!

With a little "thinking ahead" you can have baby carrots, all the lettuce and spinach you can handle, radishes, squash, and beans and peas, even if you live in an apartment. South facing window or deck, please!

Carrots, radishes, beets and other root crops need a deep container. (Doesn't matter what shape, as long as it's 18 inches deep.) Plant in rows, if you like, or scatter the seeds throughout the container. Keep the plants thinned and you'll get as many as your container will accommodate.

Lettuce, spinach, and other leaf veggies are great in containers. Here's where your ice cream buckets come in handy again. Remember to get an extra packet or two of seeds, so you can plant multiple crops as the summer wears on and you eat the leafy greens.

Squash, cucumbers, beans and peas, and the like need a five-gallon volume container (or bigger). One squash or pumpkin per container, up to four bean or pea plants. It's easier to stake these plants if there are multiple specimens in one container. For vining plants, it makes mowing so much easier if you tie the vines onto a trellis rather than letting them run over the ground.

Strawberries work so well in a container garden! A three by three container a foot deep will accommodate four plants and their runners. If the runners try to escape, just gently guide them back into their home or trim off.

Blueberries and rhubarb can be successfully grown in containers, although they like a little more room. Remember to adjust the soil conditions to suit the plant, and feed them fairly often. These fruits, along with grapes and raspberries, do better in raised beds, but be sure to try strawberries in a container.

Leave your fruit plants outside for the winter, but mulch with a good covering of hay before snow. They'll start peeking up again in the spring. What a great return on investment for a little space!