Hello Civitdaly: Costal Zone 24 (Sunset) is zones 9b and 10 to those of us who use the USDA zone system. You are in a subtropical zone and should be able to grow vegetables in containers year round on your patio. Containers will allow you to move your plants around to catch more sun or less sun depending on how warm the weather is and the time of year. You might plan to set your containers on rollers or wheels so that you can move them when necessary. You can do cool weather vegetables in fall and winter and warm weather vegetables in spring and summer in your location. You probably have very few, if any, freezing days. Cool weather crops for containers will include salad greens and small rooted vegetables -- bunching onions, mini carrots, small beets. Warm weather crops will include tomatoes, beans, squashes. Look for varieties that are dwarfs, mini-sized, or patio varieties (just ask at the garden center and they will get you started). The first year will be a learning experience -- so start with just a few crops and learn. By next fall or next spring you will be able to jump in with both feet or green thumbs. Here is a link to three starter articles on container veggie growing. http://www.harvestwizard.com/container_gardening/ You can start today with some lettuce -- ask for lettuce starts at the nearby garden center. Get a wide pot that is at least 6 to 8 inches across and ask for a potting mix with compost. That should get you started today! Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com

Other than appearance I don't know why it wouldn't work. Some use shredded newspaper or straw or hay or shredded leaves works too. Dave

Terry -- I had a mostly-organic container garden last summer (as in, I didn't use chemicals on them, but some of the plants did come from conventional nurseries or seed companies) and had good luck with lettuce, spinach, and peas. So-so luck with sweet peppers and okra, which probably needed larger pots. Excellent luck so far with herbs, though. I think two things I did wrong were using containers that were way too small for the adult plants, and not being careful enough about watering. I guess those sort-of compound one another. This summer I'm starting another rather ambitious container garden, but I had my husband build a series of 10-gallon planter boxes for our balcony. I'm also trying to companion-plant those boxes, to try and ease the strain for nutrients a bit. I've gotten tons of help from my local library; there are a dozen or so books on container/balcony gardening, including a couple on raising veg in containers. So that might be a good resource to look into as you plan your garden.

We planted tomatoes in "earth pots" that we made using Home Depot 5 gallon buckets and for other plants used plastic bins. We got the idea online. We drilled holes in the bottom of the bucket and took cotton clothesline from Dollar General, cut it into lengths and pushed them through the holes. We knotted the ends so they wouldn't fall out. Sat a brick in the bottom of another bucket that had drain holes drilled into it around the sides at a certain height and then sat the first bucket into it. Filled it with a mix of Jungle Soil and garden soil. Tomatoes went nuts! One place to see directions is www.instructables.com Hope this helps! Good luck! Val