Trader Joes has great peppers... Buy some for a salad and save the seeds. Dry them for a couple of days and then plant them.

They grow very well in Cali.

Lots of veggies you buy for food can be used for seed as well.

Doug fir won't last super long against. I like to use a copper wood preservative on my planters and I use pressure treated. One or the other is good, both is better. Modern pressure treated is copper based so its not harmfull like the older arsenic based stuff.

I also line my beds with a plastic tarp to keep the dirt away from the wood.

I want my beds to last 20 or so years.

Old coffee grounds are great in your compost heap.

Kevin