I am moving into a new apartment August 1st and my apartment (on the 1st floor) has a screened in lanai/porch. I have always wanted a small garden and feel this is the perfect opportunity.

Obviously I am going to have to garden in some sort of container (still considering a small/medium sized bed but I have no clue how to construct one of those) I am leaning toward some sort of trough. I would like to start out with green/red peppers, sweat peas, potatoes (later in the year), and jasmine.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated I am completely new to gardening and all I know is that it requires soil of some sort, water and sunlight (:

I am headed to lowes/homedepot this weekend to price things out and see what sort of watering system I can come up with because I do not have a water outlet on my patio or building.