Design: Gardening on a Porch

The Situation:
When I signed the lease, I was told I would have a porch. And I do. Sort of. I have a walkway about four feet wide and eight feet long, that leads from the common stairwell to the front door. The porch faces almost due east, so we get direct sun in the morning and none at all in the afternoon, year-round. On the plus side, we almost never get wind from that direction, so the porch is well-protected.

The Goal:
I would like to have a reasonably sized garden, predominantly edible but also incorporating a few flowers just for looks. I'm not expecting to be self-sufficient with regards to produce, but it would be nice to be able to give visitors a garden-fresh salad, or a dish made with real fresh herbs. At the same time, I don't want to take up so much space that I inhibit access to the front door. Four feet sounds bigger than it is. It would also be nice to be able to store my gardening tools on the porch with the plants. An ash tray wouldn't be a bad idea, either, considering that one of my roommates smokes, and I'm always finding cigarette butts on the ground.

Thoughts on the Matter:
I think I've actually got this one figured out. The Dollar General sells a plastic-and-fake-wood bookshelf for $15. Each leg of the bookshelf is made of four sections that screw together through holes in the corners of each shelf. Liberal application of hot glue, however, will fix the legs in place without their counterpart above the shelf. Gluing each shelf together like a small table will give me four long, narrow, raised surfaces - a total length of about 92 inches. At the moment I've only got three long, narrow boxes, so that would be more than enough space - 92 inches is long enough for four boxes. The shelves are deep enough to hold two boxes, so I could conceivably have a total of eight long boxes. More likely I'll have four boxes of vegetables and an array of smaller bowls, cups, or pots with flowers or herbs. Each shelf is a little more than 13 inches tall. That leaves plenty of room underneath for three or four woven baskets (about $6 at Big Lots) to store bags of potting soil, extra pots, tools, Miracle Gro, and whatever else needs storing. So I get a neat, tidy appearance, plenty of space, and all for about $30. Heck of a lot better than buying enough plant stands to accomplish the same goal!

Also, if I want to be really fancy, I can spend another $10 or $15 to buy four wire racks from the kitchen aisle at WalMart. Run along the back of the shelves (against the apartment wall), they would raise the back plants high enough that they wouldn't be shaded by the front plants. I think this would look better, too. Overall it wouldn't be as nice and full-looking as a compacted, overflowing container garden in big fancy pots, but I think it would work fine for a limited-space high(ish)-yield apartment porch garden. I can always space the shelves out a bit with taller wire planters holding hanging vines or something.

Another advantage to the converted-shelf idea: During the winter season, when it occasionally does actually get cold here, I can move the plants and their shelves inside onto the otherwise-useless TV cabinet.

Further Thoughts:
I'm no expert, but in looking around it seems like most of the herbs I want to grow actually prefer shade to full sun, in which case they'd do better as indoor plants. I don't have a huge amount of space for an indoor herb garden, but if I keep the living room window blinds pulled back, I think they'd do all right on the end table or even on the windowsill (assuming the cat doesn't knock them over). It's worth looking into, at any rate. There's certainly no point trying to grow anything in the kitchen.