The Modern Victory Garden

Hi!  I'm new to gardening, and am excited to have started my first summer season.  My girlfriend and I live in Washington DC and are apartment dwellers >.<  We're lucky enough to have a large patio (larger than our 300 sqft apt) which gets full sun in the summer, and full sun for parts of the day when the sun is lower on the horizon.  Since we don't own the place, we're reluctant to dig up any beds or do really extensive soil work that would be needed (never mind testing for contaminants in the city soil).  As a result we're going to test out some of the container gardening methods we've read about online.  I'm germinating several tomato strains, peppers, as well as bush beans and peas.

So, we're both interested in any advice from other gardeners who have grown in containers as to what has worked well, and what hasn't - I'm interested in particular as to self watering buckets, which seems a misnomer - they're self draining it seems more than self watering, and specifically how many cubic feet of soil per tomato / pepper plant.  Thanks!

Glad you found your way to the site Batchelder!   A great source of info on how to make your own self watering containers and how to grow lots of crops in them is EG at the "Our Engineered Garden" blog.    I warn you he is a bit of a mad scientist gardener but he sure is productive growing in SWC's.    Another good reference for you would be the book "Crops in Pots" by Bob Purnell - your local library may have this if you look.  

I grow lots of things in pots and I have a fairly good sized garden area.   However, I like to grow lettuces in pots on my deck, and I also regularly grow a few determinate (bushier growth habit) tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and blueberry bushes  in pots as well.  The larger the plant the bigger and deeper the pots need to be.  Container plants also need more frequent watering and fertilizing than crops in the ground typically.    

Thanks!  I'm excited to check out those sites you recommended.