Introduction

I am trying my luck this year starting and maintaining a backyard vegetable, herb, edible flower, and fruit garden. I myself live in Rogers Park, which is the northernmost neighborhood of Chicago, right where it abuts Evanston. I live in a rented condo without garden access or a balcony, so besides what I can grow indoors and in window sills, I have been at a loss to achieve a really productive garden. My good friend Levi lives in a small house in the northern Chicago suburban periphery--he is not particularly into gardening as far as I can tell, so when I offered to put in a garden in his dog-scattered and somewhat torn up back yard he quickly agreed. I want to get the most bang for my buck considering it's 35.5 miles from my front door to his, so I am carefully planning how I can squeeze every drop of usefulness out of it.

I plan on using as few store-bought materials and chemicals as possible. I am looking into vermiculture, and planning on making a mulch bin, and a compost area. I intend on scavenging and otherwise gathering as many materials as I can from what is being thrown out or otherwise free for the taking.
My preliminary list of what I wish to grow includes:
strawberries, basil (sweet, and maybe a spicier variety), dill, chives, flat parsley, mint, tomatoes (at least a few kinds), sunflowers, perhaps nasturtiums, radishes including daikon (i want to make daikon pickles), lettuces, and sweet corn (Levi wants sweet corn.) I am curious about cucumbers, grapes, kale, peppers, and zucchini. If all I grow is a bunch of tomatoes and basil for weeks, I would consider it a success and make lots of pesto and margherita pizza
I am also trying a few smaller scale ideas at my own apartment. This would include sprouting seeds just for sprouts, which I have come to realize is the simplest thing ever and *you* should try it, canning the peaches off my parents' peach tree once they are ready, and tucking onions and garlic that got "lost" in the pantry and have gone to shoots into pots and snipping the shoots off for yummy baked potato toppings. Unfortunately I can't do much more here, given I have cats who knock things over for amusement, and little direct sunlight. I've thought about trying mushroom cultivation.

I'm open to suggestions, be they vegetable, book, website, etc.
Levi lives quite close to the Lake County University Extension office, and they and their master gardenders might be hearing from me soon.