I guess I'm a lazy gardener. I haven't done much yet with early/late season stuff like greens, lettuce, carrots, etc. I've tried them before, but never got great results. Tomatoes are my focus. The difference between a store-bought tomato and homegrown ... well. You can't make a decent caprese with store-bought tomatoes, is all I'm saying.
This season, I've decided to give up on bell peppers. They never seem to do well for me. And no need for habaneros; we have plenty still frozen from last summer.
I'll be planting a ton of tomatoes, plus one cherry tomato and two tomatillos (you need at least two plants, at which point you get about four times as many tomatillos as you can possibly use). Jalapeño, Anaheim, and Serrano peppers. Marigolds as companion plants to the tomatoes. Cucumbers, though I've never had great luck with them. Basil, mint, and cilantro, though I've yet to keep herbs alive - if they're close at hand, they're not on drip, and they die from my forgetfulness.
I'm just now remembering that last year toward the end of the tomato crop, we were eating so many tomato salads that my stomach started hurting. Hm. Better plan for lots of freezing.
I have two 8'x3' raised beds with drip lines. They're very convenient, but I had landscapers build them at a time when I wasn't able to supervise. They're filled with regular dirt, not good soil. Also, the line runs down into/under the box, so if/when there is an issue, I'll have to take apart the boxes to fix it. I have learned a lot - at our next house, I still want raised beds, but I'll make them wider, space them farther apart, fill them with good soil, and make sure all the lines are easily accessible. As long as I'm dreaming/planning, a greenhouse would be great.
In addition to the boxes, we have about a dozen substantial pots. The plan is to create a poor man's drip system with a hose and a timer, rather than hooking into the sprinkler system. I've tried to grow cantaloupe a few times, but they never quite finish ripening before the first freeze; with the right pots, I should be able to give them some extra time.
There were several well-established rose bushes around the deck ... then I paid someone to trim them, and they I guess took a hedge trimmer to the plants. Only one has done well since. We tried putting some pepper plants on the rose drip last season, but it wasn't quite enough water. Also couldn't find drip lines for some of the roses, so maybe some were never on drip. Anyway, for the drip lines that we *did* find, I bought some pansies to try out.
I have some strawberry plants, too, though not enough to produce much more than a taste as I'm harvesting other plants.
I'm excited!