Get Started in Container Gardening With Low-Maintenance Outdoor Potted Plants

Gardening has many benefits for our mental health and wellness, but it also helps reduce our environmental impact. If you’re new to growing, container gardening is a great way to start! Or, if you’ve dabbled with indoor gardening but don’t have the time — or the room — for a full garden, you can still create a happy outdoor space with some low-maintenance outdoor potted plants.

Some potted plants are perfect for porches, decks, rooftops, stairwells, or other small spaces, and don’t require a lot of care or sunlight. They’re a perfect match if you travel or work a lot, but appreciate the color and charm and functionality of your own little garden. Here are eight low-maintenance outdoor potted plants in various growing zones to give you some garden ideas!

Colorful pansies are incredibly versatile and can play a thrilling role in any outdoor potted arrangement. Pests tend to stay away, although slugs do pose a threat. Give them partial sun, and if you live in a warmer area, plant them in the fall, and they’ll continue to bloom through the winter, per Better Homes and Gardens.

Lavender is known for its lovely fragrance and ability to ward off certain insects. If you want to grow some for yourself, lavender is a fairly low-maintenance plant, although it should be pruned annually. Gardening Know How recommends six to eight hours of light each day, so place your potted lavender in a sunny spot and take care not to overwater it.

These bold beauties add a pop of color and style to window sills and are fairly easy to grow in warm climates. Southern Living recommends giving caladiums morning light and partial shade and growing them in well-drained soil.

With shimmering purple leaves, this large evergreen shrub bodes well in outdoor containers in warm climates. Gardener’s Path suggests indirect sunlight, organic soil with good drainage, and regular watering when the top soil becomes dry.

If you’re looking for a shade-loving plant to grow on a covered outdoor porch, Brunnera, with its bright indigo flowers, might be what you’re looking for. Gardener’s Path suggests using the “Jack Frost” variety for lovely, silver heart-shaped leaves. Besides breaking up soil clumps that have overgrown every few years, it’s pretty self-reliant. As a bonus, it’s also resistant to major pests.

If you live in warmer climates, aloe is an easy plant to grow and provides beautiful, tubular-shaped floral clusters in red, pink, yellow, or orange — depending on the species type. Aloe vera gel has amazing medicinal benefits, particularly for soothing the skin. Aloe likes full sun and can grow in poor soil, provided the pot has good drainage, per Gardening Know How.

If you’re looking for another shade-lover, Hostas have a number of fun variations and textured leaves. HGTV recommends a well-drained pot and will require average amounts of watering.

Beautiful, bright pink clusters grow on tall stalks like exploding fireworks. These stunning plants are known as sea thrift. They can grow in gravel or poor-quality soil (instead of potting soil) in a well-drained pot, per House Digest, and are fairly straightforward.