Hi Andria, Welcome to The Gardener's Forum.
I do my gardening in containers. It includes vegetables, flowering
plants, and dwarf/semi-dwarf citruses and fruit
trees.
I use mostly plastic containers, some of which are 1-5 gal. sizes, others are 13" to 17" pots. Other containers I use are clay/ceramic pots, wooden pots and half-wine barrels for larger fruit
trees. If you use food grade plastics that has been used in restaurants or food facilities, you need to drill 1/2-inch to 1-inch hole for drainage. Plastics that are food grade are safe and so are plastic pots, laundry baskets, and hard side children's wading pools, purchased from garden centers.
The advantage of container gardening is it's mobility, especially if you use casters. If pots are to be placed on cemented patio, they should have saucers to catch run-off that can stain the cemented surface.
Now for vegetable gardening.
There are warm season & cool season vegetables. You are in Florida, so the
growing conditions are similar to California.
I grow vegetables such as beans, cabbage, watercress, eggplants, garlic, herbs,[sweet basil, chives, coriander, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, etc], leek, lettuce, okra, onion, oriental cabbage, peas,
pepper,
potato, radish, shallot, New Zealand spinach, Kabocha squash, tomato, tomatillo, etc. and apple, apricot, avocado, blueberry, cherry, cherimoya, citruses [calamondin, grapefruit kumquat,lemon, lime, orange, and pummelo], edible fig, Japanese loquat, peach & nectarine, pear, persimmon, pineapple guava [Fejoia], pomegranate, plum, and strawberries; and a few indoor/outdoor flowering and non-flowering
plants.
The thing to remember is that, mosts
plants will grow in at least 6 inches of soil. Many herbs and few vegetables will do quite well on shalllow containers. Tomato, carrot, radish and other deep rooted vegetables will need more than 6 inches of soil. Laundry baskets will do because they are about 10 inches deep. If you use laundry baskets, you would need holes at the bottom for drainage and maybe weedblocker-type of fabric to cover the slats to keep the soil in. Putting casters in the laundry basket is a good idea, just remember, the weight of soil and water may cause the bottom of the baskets to buckle.
Here is a list of cool season & warm season vegetables:
Cool season:
Artichoke, asparagus, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, collards, water cress, endive, garlic, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, onions, oriental greens, parsnip, peas,
potato, radish, rhubarb, roquette, rutabaga, salsify, shallots, spinach, swiss chard and turnip.
Warm season:
Amaranth, beans, chayote, chicory, collards, corn, cucumber, eggplants, most herbs, jerusalem artichoke, jicama, melon, okra, oriental melons, peanuts,
peppers, pumpkin, peas, spinach, squash, sunflower, sweet
potatoes, tomatillo, tomato and watermelon.
These are good for containers:
Amaranth, beans, beets, broccoli, some cabbage, carrots, collards, water cress, cucumber, eggplants, herbs, mustard greens, onions, oriental greens, peas,
peppers, radish, roquette, shallots, sorrell, spinach [New Zealand], swiss chard, tomatoes
These are prolific producers:
Beans, brussels sprouts, cucumber, herbs, jerusalem artichoke, mustard green, oriental greens, peas, radish, spianch [New Zealand], sprouts, some squash, sunflower, tomatoes.
These are fast maturing:
Amaranth, water cress, most herbs, lettuce, mustard greens, onions [green], radish, roquette, spinach, sprouts, turnips.
With this list of vegetables, you could probably have a year-round supply of fresh vegetables. When planting, stagger them a week or two apart, so that you will have continued supply of vegetables.
Soil & Fertilizer:
I use store bought potting soil and fertilize the
plants according to individual
plant requirements. Last season I use both compost and fertizer. Do a pH test on the soil you are going to use. Most garden soil range from 4.5 [very acidic] to 9[very alkaline] before adding any fertilizer. Some
plants prefer either acidic or alkaline soil. And, follow label instructions when using/applying fertilizers.
Sunlight requirements:
Some
plants requires a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight either under direct sunlight or bright sunlight in protected/shaded areas.
Watering:
plants in containers are subjected to drying heat, hot temperature, and reflected heat and wind that dries the soil and therefore need more watering attention. Water early in the morning; and, depending on the outside tempeerature, you may need to water more than once a day, however, avoid watering at noon to about 3:oo p.m.
On fluoridated water:
Unfortunately, the fluoride in drinking water is not easily removed without expense. There are available methods: reverse osmosis filtration, activated aluminum defluoridation filter, distillation filtration, etc. Here's a link you can check:
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/toppicks/tp/aatp102502.htm It might be more cost effective to collect rainwater and use it to water your
plants. There is a thread in this Forum on collecting rainwater and containers for collecting them...do a Forum Search for Rainwater.
Loz, Weezie and other Forum members already answered some of your gardening questions. You may also want to check "Pineapple Raye's" posts on organic gardening. He is an avid organic gardener.
Glad to have you on board...Goodluck!
we get a little off 
!!!!!
to ask.. we all were 
