"I'm thinking I call it full sun, but I wanted to check and see if that's right?"
How many hours of direct sun does the porch get?

I grow mostly in containers and my philosophy is to grow things I can't get at the grocery store, or not easily, in order to get the most "bang" for my buck/space. So I grow summer squash, but I don't grow yellow crookneck or standard zuchinis since those are so inexpensive at the store. I grow scallop squash or the round yellow and green squash that are good for stuffing. I'm growing Blushing Beauty for my sweet pepper. It starts out ivory and turns red as it matures. But grow whatever you'd like to be able to have fresh and handy, whether it's at the local store or not.

For easy plants, it's hard to beat lettuce. I grow a mix of pretty leaf lettuces that I harvest one leaf (per plant) at a time so the rest of the plant keeps growing. Herbs are also good to grow. Basil and chives are very easy in my experience.

Depending on the size of the container and the vegetable, yes you can grow more than one per container. I'm growing about a dozen baby corn in one container, about fifty leaf lettuces in another, and two small tomato plants in another.

Containerseeds.com is a good place to look at seeds picked for container growing.

Get this book from your library (most libraries have it):

McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers
by Rose Marie Nicols McGee,Maggie Stuckey

Many of your questions are answered in there. Excellent reference for growing veggies in containers.

Thanks for the tips! Unfortunately, my library doesn't have that book, but when I searched for it in the online catalog, I did see a bunch of other books. I'll have to go in over lunch some day and flip through to see what the best ones are for container AND veggies.

So do you have a library consortium (interlibrary loan)? My library is part of a 25 library system. I can search and request a book from any of the libraries (for free!). It is delivered to my local library and then I check it out there and return there as well. I do this all the time! I would be lost without it. May be check if you have this option. Else the paper back version of the book isn't too much I think less than $20.

Good luck!

PS I only grow tomatoes and chile peppers in containers. Nothing like taste of home grown tomatoes. I have grown eggplants (small asian types) and peppers before also.

Fresh Habeneros cost $4.99/pound at my local mexican grocery store so I grow lots of them. I also grow lots of different herbs and tomatoes. In the summer, to get rid of all the tomatoes, I make a lot of salsa and it's nice to be able to grab all the salsa ingredients from your garden. Salsa with habeneros can get extremely hot so be careful. :-)

mea2214 - yes I grow herbs too! They are so much better than at the farmer's market. Everyone should have a few herb plants -- think how much the stores/markets get for them!

sedum37 - Thanks for the tip! I ordered the book for an interlibrary loan. I stopped by the library to browse the other books, but I didn't check any out yet. There were a couple that were about container gardening/edibles, but I'm going to wait til the other book comes in so I have one due date!

I'm now thinking that I'm going to go with sweet peppers, tomatoes, and the scalloped squash, then maybe some chives.

Good I am glad you were able to get the book! If you like it you may decide to buy one (or hint, hint ask for one as a gift).

Chives do excellent in containers. They are perennials for me in my zone 5 garden. I just put the chives container (plastic pot) behind a shed in late fall and they come back every year in the pot. Matter of fact on that one I haven't changed the soil in a while!

I found that book at Amazon.com. Sometimes you can get a good deal on used books.

Waiting to hear back from the library about getting the book in, I went onto Amazon and did the Look Inside This Book/Surprise Me! feature to get a few (dozen) peeks at what was in there. Now I'm thinking about stopping into Barnes and Noble to pick it up. It looks great, and I can't wait to get it!

Thanks sedum37 for the tip about the book. I just bought it on Half.com (for only $10!) I am really looking forward to receiving it as I am pretty clueless and I would like to try another garden this year - one that will have better results than last years!