Grow what you like to eat. If you love lettuce or green beans, they are easy to grow. Love crisp apples? they won't grow well in your warm climate so you'd waste your money buying apple trees. Hate carrots? then don't plant carrots.

You asked about permanent vegetables - the only ones I know of are asparagus, horseradish, walking onion, herbs, and sunchoke and those are harvested in season, not continuously. Everything else grows from seeds and usually has a growing period from a month to 5 months before harvest. Fruit trees and shrubs do not provide fruit continuously all year either, they have seasons too.

Check with your local County Extension Office for what grows well in your area. Visit a local farmers market and see what they are offering for sale and ask the farmer what his best crops are and their season. Ask your neighbors what they grow. Ask people who grow fruit trees or shrubs if they love them and gift everyone with their bounty, or hate the constant cleanup under them now that their freezer and pantry shelves are full for the next 5 years from the previous bounty.

Start small to be sure you really "like" growing your own food and the amount of time it takes to maintain a garden all year (the "fuss" part). Perhaps a space 5' x 10'. If it doesn't work for you that space can be converted back to landscape plants. Or, you can plant vegetable seeds in purchased organic potting soil, in some black plastic pots, usually available at most garden nurseries for free, and spread them out in your garden area to see what grows well or does not.

No one can tell you definitively what to grow. Just jump in and see what works for you.

Nancy

I agree. Grow what you eat.
Think about the fruits and veggies that you buy the most.

As Nancy mentioned, certain things probably won't grow in your area even if they are favorites, but your biggest money saver is growing what you normally buy.

For me, tomatoes, green beans, onions, potatoes, cukes (fresh and for pickles) are important. Some things aren't worth the effort to me like dry beans. They are SO cheap to buy and take up a lot of room and require lots of labor at harvest. Not happening!

I love having fresh salad stuff. Lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, green onion, cukes, tomatoes, snow peas, etc.

I only garden in raised beds and cabbage uses too much room. It's cheap to buy.

I have a couple of apple trees (still young), blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. Blackberries are free for the picking here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon so there's no way I'd plant them!!

Evaluate what is readily available and cheap in your area and plant the things you like that are more expensive or you eat a lot of. Try a small amount of several different things to see what you enjoy growing.

For me, garlic and herbs are low maintenance and trouble free. Tomatoes are a must just because they taste SO good fresh and we use a lot of them. Jalapenos and anaheims I grow, but have a cheap source for bell peppers so only have one or two plants for fresh.
Cilantro and dill are easy here along with sage, oregano, rosemary (beautiful landscaping bush and could be street-visibile), chives, etc.

Mostly....have fun!!
Deanna

To grow for preserving? BWB canning or pressure canning? That would make a big difference.

If you only do BWB canning then you are pretty much limited to fruits, plain tomatoes, and things you can pickle like peppers, beets, cukes and things you can ferment like cabbage for sauerkraut.

But if you do pressure canning then a whole other world of things to grow and preserve opens up.

Just a guess but I would think the folks on the California Gardening forum here or on the Vegetable Gardening forum could give you some good tips on what does well in your area.

Dave

I think you should start small and easy to see how you like the additional work. I think you ask a very good question so here's why I grow certain things:
- tomatoes, like everyone else, plus I discovered oven drying paste tomatoes is a great way to preserve. They take up less room in the freezer. Plus I found a curried cherry tomato recipe that makes an excellent sauce similar to chili sauce. I like it on breakfast sandwiches. You might find you love salsa but it's not something we eat much of.
- peppers: I grow a wide variety since I found a local grower who has an amazing selection. We love peppers. To freeze, just stem, seed and cut in slices. Stick in a freezer bag. Last year I discovered a recipe for roasted red pepper soup. Yum!
- herbs: you'll use more fresh herbs if they are right outside your door. Start with the familiar ones.
- summer squash: easy to grow and the abundance always launches my zucchini recipe frenzy...everything from pickles to cookies, to side dishes. My DIL makes zucchini relish.
- bush beans: I have found the filet type is my husband's favorite. He likes young, tender beans. I do not preserve them so I don't plant a lot.
- sugar snap peas: one of our first fresh vegetables here in NH. Expensive in the store. Tastier grown at home.
- strawberries: we all love them. I don't grow enough to freeze.
- blueberries: I'm just starting out. It might have been smarter just to go to PYO places. Very easy to freeze.
- spinach: This may become my favorite garden crop. We have to sow it early (like now) to get a good crop. Last year we had a very mild winter and my August planted spinach wintered over. I think I picked some for salad in March. This is in the category of wonderful things from the garden that are possible even in March in NH.
- beets: boy, we love beets and beet greens. I still have some in the frig from last fall. (I think they're still ok.) I'm experimenting with cold storage. I had some in the garage for part of the winter.
- lettuce: I'm real iffy on this. First, finding a flavor I like and one that doesn't go bitter. There is so much the average growing book doesn't tell you. I think I need to be more careful about which ones to grow at different times of the season.
- winter squash: the bugs did in most of my crop last year but I've found two varieties that are fantastic keepers. This means I can stick squash in the basement all winter and still have some in March. No freezing. No canning. To me, this is an ideal vegetable if you have the room.
- parsnips: another vegetable that improves with over-wintering in the garden so we can eat fresh as soon as the ground thaws enough for digging.
- kale: my husband hates it. I love it. I brown bag my lunches so I'll grow a little bit for salads and sneak some into occasional soups.
- cucumbers are ho hum for us. I really liked a particular variety, poona kheara, but my husband is not a big salad eater and hates pickles.
- I also love rhubarb but my husband hates it. The asparagus bed would be wonderful if I hadn't botched starting it in the first place. Probably not good if you have limited space.

We do not grow corn because of critter problems. It's much easier to buy at the local farmstand.

onions: we eat a lot of onions but I haven't learned the knack of growing a decent sized onion. I should grow lots of scallions because I use them a lot.

What I have found is that an abundance forces me to find new ways to use something. I try not to grow too much of anything but I'm always surprised. I thought tarragon flavored sugar snap pickles were wonderful but nobody else did. It is so much fun in summer to pick a fresh pepper for our grilled hamburgers. This past winter I have learned to make my own pizza dough so this summer I will make and can pizza sauce, trying to duplicate our favorite brand (Muir Glen).
Happy Gardening!