Its longest side faces East, and on the East there's two HUGE maples shrouding it, which had resulted in mold growth, and twigs sprouting through the concrete. I imagine there's twigs sprouting up from the single-garage beneath, but since the garage door is stuck, I've not been inside for years. (Note: a few years back i worked very hard scrubbing bleach all over the patio & lopping the growths with a lopper, but it was excruciatingly painful labor, and I also think the bleach caused enlargement of the cracks on the patio floor.

Now to the point:

I'm hoping to have the tree branches thinned soon, by a tree service, in order to allow enough sunlight to shine on the the patio so that I can grow a veggie garden on it.

Questions:

(1) Is there any such thing as a translucent, cheap plastic awning (atrium??) which can prevent green thingies from falling onto the patio from the overgrown maples? That way, maybe I can get on with attempting to grow stuff on the patio. As things are now, there's often a "carpet" of all sorts of unwanted thingies on the patio.

(2) The patio is surrounded with a "black" (mostly rusted) wrought iron railing. Is there any best way I should instruct a handyman to fasten posts all along the railing - so that I can dangle upsy-downsy planters from them in a way that the veggies would descend onto the patio, instead of "outward"? That would be preferable, cuz otherwise, the neighboring kids (who make free with my property) might make free with my garden too.

(3) Which veggies would you recommend I grow on patio, and which containers? I already bought 5 standard planters with drip-plates beneath. I believe they're gallon size.

There's also planters such as the below available I imagine, but they're expensive, and I don't own a car to conveniently haul stuff like this home:
http://www.csnstores.com/Suncast-PLT2500-XA1122.html

Thanks in advance for advice regarding my Qs.

(1) I'd just pick the maple seed pods out of your planters when they fall, and sweep away the ones that fall on the patio. If you really want to screen them out, you can try 1/4" hardware cloth a few feet above your containers.

(2) You can hang planters from the railings with chains, or find brackets made for the purpose.

(3) Start small, with a few varieties. Lettuce and herbs are good for starters. If they do well, that means you're getting enough sun -- then try carrots and beets for a fall crop, and next year try tomatoes, onions, kale, chard, and potatoes.

If you decide to order new planters, you can buy them online, or many local stores will deliver. You might find some useful ones inexpensively at yard sales.

Best of luck with your plantings! Please let us know how they work out.

There's nothing like pics to describe a situation (rather than 1000 words).

It happens to be the survivalist boards. Unfortunately, once i posted my pics of my nauseatingly run down house, they seem to have washed their hands of me, and never mind that someone in such desperate straits is in most need of helpful info.

The worst of it, is that the same guy who suggested my posting pics, then had the crassness to respond in a flip, totally pointless way, without offering factual help such as brand names of products to help me.

It's so typical of what happens online - i.e. the lack of help one receives is proportional to the effort one expends trying to get help. (at least that's been consistently the case with me. I'm a murphy's luck magnet, no exaggeration. It's SO illogical, and SO doesn't make sense, but that's how it goes with me.