Best plants for a terrace garden
Grow more on your terrace.
The best terrace plants share three traits: they tolerate heat radiating off walls and paving, they stay upright in wind without staking, and their root systems fit in containers of a reasonable size. Generic lists of container plants often skip wind and reflected heat, which is why those plants look fine in photos but struggle on real terraces.
Reliable choices for exposed terraces include cherry tomatoes (choose compact or determinate varieties), sweet peppers, chillies, aubergine, kale, chard, climbing beans on a sheltered trellis, and most Mediterranean herbs. All handle heat and moderate wind well when grown in containers large enough for their roots.
For colour and pollinator support, pelargoniums, lavender, salvia, and trailing nasturtiums are genuinely wind-tough. Avoid tall thin plants like staked indeterminate tomatoes and tall sunflowers unless you have a sheltered corner. Use the plant finder to filter by wind tolerance, sun level and container size for your specific terrace.