“I’m thinking perennials, long term growers, things that can only be maintained by hand.”
How about a long row of strawberries or blueberry bushes? Asparagus? Rhubarb?
Want some perennials for Pollinators? I’d go with Salvia, Lavender, Coneflower or Asters. Also any of the perennial herbs for your zone would be nice for both them and you.
Or, a row of NATIVE perennials for your specific zone. Useful and beautiful.
https://garden.org/apps/frost-dates/
Once you choose your risk level, you can plug in the dates here and it will give you the duration or number of growing days. https://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html
Using 50% chance of 28 degrees, I end up with Apr 14 - Oct 18 which is 188 days. Playing it safer with 30% chance of 36 degrees gives me 127 days.
I was just looking at peanuts 120-140 days but I doubt they like 36 degrees. I could start them indoors and hope for a warm Fall. Always wanted to grow some. Could grow some in the tunnel someday. Maybe next year. I could have boiled peanuts that don't come from a can. I miss them from FL where most convenient stores had a crockpot of them going all the time. Bought some fresh green ones and made my own once. That's more of that unobtainium food thing here in MO. Peanuts are like potatoes as far as being considered by most as not worth growing but if you simply can't get something, it becomes valuable. That reminds me, I need to check out that one grocery store and see if they have seed potatoes yet. They used to always have Yukon Gold.
I'll add the above links to my profile page. Since it's a pretty good sized reference with much of it coming from there gardening threads, here's a link to it -- https://freerepublic.com/~pollard/