Here is a great blog with some good links. People use kitchen gardens either as a hobby, to feel some closeness with nature, to get some food that they are sure is free from chemicals, or generally to supplement their grocery purchases with some self-grown vegetables. This blog (link) talks more about self-sufficiency through the purpose of a garden.
As a result, you learn more about how to grow a garden more suited for growing more food (in these times of recession, would you rather have a garden with a large extent of green lawn, or the same space being used for growing vegetables? – a lawn might look more aesthetic, but a garden built on the process of self-sufficiency would be more useful). You read the whole research paper on this subject, built around efforts in Melbourne. Here are some extracts from the article:

Community food security has emerged as a key response to broader environmental and socio-political issues. This research paper explores an important aspect – the ability of community members in the metropolitan Melbourne area to grow their own food and beneficial herbs, plants of self-sufficiency or productive value, while practicing sustainable gardening methods.
The research found a large majority of respondents believed there were increasing community trends toward self sufficient gardening and sustainable gardening. The research findings discovered substantial evidence of diverse educational opportunities. It found confirmation on communal and individual benefits of self-sufficient gardening, and some setbacks to healthy growth in Melbourne’s gardens.

While browsing and looking for some tips about growing kitchen vegetables, I found this excellent article. It takes a look at how to grow 10 common vegetables with relation to the amount of sun / shade needed, and changed a few of the impressions that I had; I also learned something new from this article (link). Some of the things I learned were:
- You really don’t need your vegetable patch to have full sun all the time
- The amount of sun required depends on the type of vegetables; if you are growing a vegetable from which you harvest the fruit or the root, then you need full sun; if you are growing a vegetable from which you take leaves, the stem or buds, then it is fine to grow them in some shade
- You cannot grow vegetables in full shade, you need some sun
- You need to research about which vegetables need how much shade, since you may have over-looked that the small shaded area that you otherwise overlooked could be useful to grow a specific vegetable
Here is an extract from the article:

The following crops will produce with three to six hours of sun, or fairly constant dappled shade, per day.
Salad Greens, such as leaf lettuce, arugula, endive, and cress.
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Peas
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Radishes
Swiss Chard
Leafy Greens, such as collards, mustard greens, spinach, and kale
Beans

The previous article was about growing tomatoes in containers. But suppose you have the space to grow tomatoes in soil, and want to figure out what all you need to do to get a healthy output. There is plenty of information that would help you in this process; after all, you need to know about which types of tomatoes, what are the pests and blights that could affect your plants, what is the best type of soil, what is the amount of watering and sunlight that should be given to the plants, and so on. Further, if you get tips and points that you should avoid doing, those will help you a lot. Here is the link to an article that should help you in this regard:

# Good first-time growers’ varieties include Better Boy, Creole, Big Boy, Early Girl, Brandywine, Celebrity, Lemon Boy, or just about any cherry or grape tomato variety.
# Plant several varieties rather than all of one type– this ensures a steady harvest. As a rule of thumb, it’s good to have two plants for each member of the family who will eat tomatoes. If you plan on canning or making salsa, use up to four plants per person.
# Prepare the garden bed by adding lots of compost (5 to 8 pounds per square foot/25 to 40 kilograms per square meter) to the soil. Turn compost into the top 3 inches (6 to 8 cm). Tomatoes demand a growing medium rich in organic matter. If you don’t make your own compost, use store-bought compost or composted manure available in the 40-pound bags. Compost or Manure is usually less than US$5 per 40-pound bag.

The referred article provides help from the process of selecting the tomato plant / seed, and then goes onto providing an estimate of how many plants you should have. You learn about the tomato spacing, watering, providing fertilizer, support for the growing plant, when to pick the tomato, warnings and things to avoid, etc.

Trying to grow some juicy tomatoes ? Can’t resist the temptation to have some bright red juicy tomatoes growing on a vine and then to cut them in your kitchen, savoring the pleasure ? And of course, you really don’t have the outdoor space to grow tomatoes properly in soil ? Well, fear not. There are plenty of resources dedicated to helping you grow tomatoes even though you do not have soil on the ground and would like to grow them in containers. Here is the link to an article that provides many more details on what you should do to get such a garden:

* Plant tomatoes such as cherry or Roma varieties that have smaller fruit, which do best with the upside down hanging tomato growing method.
* If you don’t like the look of a five gallon bucket, you can also purchase planters specifically made for hanging tomatoes.
* Be sure to pick a solid place and use a good strong hook or other means from which to hang your tomato plants; each planter will weigh between 35 and 40 pounds.
* Plant your hanging tomato plants in spring (between late April and early June depending on how far north you are located) so that you can enjoy fresh tomatoes all through the growing season.

The article takes you through details on how you can set up your container for growing the tomatoes, get the required soil (with the additives that you would need for this purpose), and so on. And of course, you can go and search for more details on how to grow tomatoes in containers (also refer to previous articles on this site).