Tasty Kitchen Garden

Container plantings bring color, fragrance, texture, height, and depth to a modest-size porch, deck, or balcony. Pots of herbs, vegetables, fruiting vines, and edible annuals pack even more punch.

Here's one way to arrange a kitchen garden in containers. Listed below are the plants we selected, including some suggested varieties for containers. More and more seed companies are offering vegetables bred specifically for growing in pots. Check seed catalogs or your local nursery for availability.

1. Grapevine: Despite our artist's license, you won't be able to grow a grapevine to fruiting size in a pot, but a grape plant or flowering vine adds a vertical accent to a container garden.

2. Tomato: 'Beefsteak,' 'Cherry Elite,' 'Cherry Express,' 'Cherry Gold,' 'Sweet Chelsea'. Although you can allow a tomato to sprawl, you'll have a neater garden if you prune to a single stem and train it up a stake. Pinch out new shoots that arise in the notch where a leaf meets the main stem.

3. Chives (Allium schoenoprasum): You might also consider green (or bunching) onions, which produce small bulbs, edible leaves, and a less intense onion flavor.

4. Onion (Allium cepa): Burpee Sweet Spanish,' 'Egyptian Walking,' 'New York Early,' 'Red Baron,' 'Walla Walla Sweet.' Onion flowers can be attractive, but produce inferior harvests. Ask your supplier about the best time to plant in your area to ensure the best results.

5. Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia): 'Hidcote,' 'Munstead,' 'Nana Alba'

6. Pepper (Capsicum annuum): 'Jingle Bells,' 'Long Red Cayenne,' 'Sweet Banana,' 'Yolo Wonder'