I have to go find USDA planting guidelines for this zone (I think it’s Zone 9) and what would grow best for us in containers. I hope to get my son involved too.<<<
You can grow almost all of it.
Check out the Sunset Magazine site and Sunset garden bible.
I have used the Sunset all plant growing book about 50 years.
Plan the growing area, so you can enclose it in the hard part of winter, with a roll of plastic and you can grow like crazy.
I did that the year that I planted about 800 cups of seeds, LOL, what can I say, I liked sitting by the wood stove, planting seeds on a cold night.
When it got out of control and they needed sunlight, I went out and tied wires to the porch railing, [which has since fallen off].....and managed to get a 3 foot high green house, that you had to crawl into, but the plants loved it.
Used lots of clothes pins to hold a roll of the plastic that Walmart sells for a drop cloth. The roll is 10 footx 25 foot and will cost about $7.00.
I use the plastic, for lots of things, this mobile is falling apart and I cover the drafts with plastic.
The vent over the bed leaks, so I have a plastic bedspread and it does help to keep in the body heat on a cold night.
If you need to sleep on the ground, put a sheet of plastic on the ground, then your sleeping bag on top.
If you are going to use large pots to grow in, put a stake or more than one stake in it and drape plastic over it, with clothes pins to clip it to the pot and itself for a mini greenhouse.
You can make your own Wall of water, by saving the large soda bottles, filling with water and putting them in with the plants, or around the plants, they will collect heat from the sun in the day time and give it to the plants at night.
I left my bottles in place year around, thinking that we have cooler nights here in the summer, so why wouldn’t the offer coolness, until the sun heats them again.
While you are still in town, start hitting the bakeries, coffee shops, Starbucks, etc and asking for their plastic buckets, and watch for the instructions that I posted here, early on for making them into planters.........LOL, or poke holes with a drill and plant in them.
I have grown every thing in a bucket here and even in the house, they produced.
I have used the Sunset all plant growing book about 50 years.
Plan the growing area, so you can enclose it in the hard part of winter, with a roll of plastic and you can grow like crazy.
I have a Sunset Western Gardening Guide somewhere, so I will dig it out and look for good prospects.
We have a place below the bathroom window on the south side of the house that would likely be perfect for a greenhouse. It's flat over there, water is close by, and we could attach plastic to the house and not have it seen from the road, as it's behind a shed.
I will try the water storage idea to keep the plants warm - did it work for you? So then the only issue is to get containers. I posted a link in the 6750-7000 range for how to build an Earth Box made from Rubbermaid storage tubs, I may go take a look at that again. It would be cool to have our own garlic, onions, potatoes, radishes and carrots. We almost never have frost, and in a greenhouse I imagine it doesn't matter. Plus there are piles of leaves and grass that we could use for compost.
Exciting stuff!!!