Susan-
Some ideas:

Strawberries, from alpine to day neutral. "Roman" has deep pink flowers and tasty medium size fruit

Blueberry bushes- especially "Top Hat" and the like

Dwarf fruit trees- the usual grafted on super-dwarf rootstock appropriate for container culture or the recently available columnar apple trees. They do cost money.

Daylilies, esp smaller repeating kinds like "Stella d'Oro", "Happy Returns", "Pardon Me" The flowers and buds are tasty in salads and in stir-fry.

Have some pots in which you plan to plant greens ready inside your potting area in winter. Right now plant crocus bulbs in each one, about 2" below the surface. Water, allow to drain. Pots should remain cold (not full of ice though). In very early spring plant seeds for lettuce (different varieties in a range of colors and varieties), kale, mesclun, etc. between the bulb shoots and move the containers outside. Bulb foliage should have ripened and dried before greens are ready to cut.

Rhubarb- There are showy ornamental cultivars. I also like the look of many of the usual kinds, especially "Valentine" and "Champagne" in big pots. Keep them in rich soil with plenty of water and they'll have pretty leaves and tasty stalks for quite a while.

Veggies happy in cooler soils than most: spinach, lettuce, kale, beets, sugar snap peas, carrots. Annual white, purple, and pink alyssum grows from seed, looks pretty, smells like honey, and draws in beneficial insects including pollinators.

Potatoes can take a cooler soil and are beautiful in bloom.If you use good quality soil you can easily harvest new potatoes and even full size tubers easily with your hands. There are many clever tricks you can try to grow potatoes in containers. Sweet potatoes work too and make a pretty vine, but need a long season and more heat.

Watering is, as you know, critical. With containers though, you have options for making less of a chore. Mulches can help maintain stable soil temp within the pots, control water loss through evaporation, and reduce both weeding and animal interferences (eg. cover soil with black plastic, poke or cut holes for seed and transplants. Prevents excess evaporation, heats soil, and helps keep feral cats from making your garden planters into litter boxes.)

Chicken bedding usually must be composted both to avoid burning plants with urea and (if in wood shavings) to avoid tying up available nitrogen as the wood fibers decompose in the soil where plants are trying to grow. It's worth the money to buy the best organic compost you can manage to add to the materials you mention. The soil is everything when it comes to food crops.

Have fun.

maeve