you need to find the perennial forum [and the annual forum]

post a pic of your site..

and then gather a list of plants that you like..

and then come back here and ask how to propagate them..

there are millions of gardening books.. and you want us to list plants.. and then tell you how to propagate them ... oh if life were so easy ... lol

ken

Hi & welcome to Gardenweb. Your porch sounds awesome!

The basics of getting started would be to observe the sunlight in different areas at different times of day. The plants already growing in different areas (assuming they are healthy looking) can help as a guideline, like for asking "will plant X be happy in a spot where plant Z is doing well?" Once you determine how much sun you have in different spots, you can know if you need plant for mostly sun or mostly shade. You'll probably find wildly different areas suitable for a wide variety of plants.

From there, the options are vast. You can use perennials, which come back every year but usually don't offer as much in the way of blooms. You can use annuals which usually offer blooms for a much longer time but are killed by cold each year. Or a combination of both.

Investigate some of these basics and you'll be more able to proceed, and ask questions to which people can give you more specific opinions and advice.

A lot of beginners get all hung up wanting specific things that end up being hard to obtain or with requirements that are hard to meet in their yard. Another good elementary step is to go window shopping. See what's out there that attracts you. Then investigate its' requirements (and eventual size!) to see if you have a suitable spot for it. It's a bummer to put a lot of effort and time investigating plants you can't find.

Another extremely important thing is the soil. Not nearly as exciting or romantic as flowering plants, but a critical element in a successful garden. Dig around in there a bit to see how it is, and begin to educate yourself about mulch.