Some plants can become toxic enough to kill you if it cross pollinates with similar other plants. I think watermelon and zucchini do this. Be careful, do your research, and always share some of your crop with neighbors you don't like to see what happens first.
Substinence farming fucking sucks, you're going to be on the field all day long in the summer in order to have enough food to get you through the winter. Hobbyist gardening gives you best of both worlds - you have a nice patch of land to play in, and at the end you get a handful of produce to show off to friends and family.
Since I see a lot about second generation peppers not being as good as first, does that go for tomatoes too? There are those really tasty grocery store cherry tomatoes that come in different varieties in one box. They cost like 4x the others but I get them when they're discounted before they throw them away. Can I save the seeds and grow them in my containers?
We grew some cherries in containers this year before they got invaded by stinkbugs. But those that survived were the tastiest tomatoes I've had in my life.