I'm desperately wanting to grow vegetables on my apartment patio, but I'm concerned about the amount of sunlight I get. It's a southern facing patio, but the sunlight is almost totally blocked by another building that is set about four feet higher than mine. In fact, the view from my patio is a retaining wall!

I believe I get at least an hour or two of sunlight a day, but I'm not sure how direct it is. So, I'm wondering if it would be helpful to replace my standard incandescent porch light with a CFL "grow light." Would a grow light have to be very close to the plants, or would a foot or two of distance make much of a difference? I suppose I could always elevate the containers if this would make a difference...

I'm also flexible on the types of vegetables I grow - I'm still working that out. I'm assuming some would be more OK with less sunlight than others? I'm very new to this and I'm trying to get it all figured out!