Basically, find out what grow zone you are in first. This way you will know what grows well in your area and how early you can plant it. Also grow season lengths and how long it takes a plant to bear food is something to keep in mind especially up north. (Sorry I'm assuming you're in US).
I recommend starting small and starting with foods you like to eat that work in your grow zone. For your first year, I also recommend not starting from seed even though it's cheaper, but entirely up to you. It's hard to harden off baby plants, or it is for me anyways. Easier to start seeds directly outside for me.
You'll want to assess how much space you have and how much sun that area gets. Get plants that work in full sun or part shade depending on your available space.
For small spaces, look into square foot gardening or container gardening. Some examples, tomatoes and peppers like one plant per square foot. Cucumbers are two per square foot, but they need something to climb. There is even hay bale gardening. Something called companion planting is also really helpful to know eventually. Like beans with corn so the beans have something to climb, or basil with tomatoes because the basil keeps the tomato worms away. Marigolds to keep out rabbits.
If you're just tilling up a square patch in your backyard, be sure to till in some sort of fertilizer or compost before planting or putting down seeds. You want the soil fairly loose. If you're doing a bed above ground or container planting, fill with some good compost.
Some plants like acidic soil or non-acidic soil better, but I wouldn't worry too much about all of that right away. Just something to keep in mind if a plant doesn't do well one year. Also, some plants like a lot of water and others don't. You can kind of tell by keeping an eye on them. Better to water in the morning before the heat of the sun. In the evening promotes fungus growth over night.
To begin, I recommend starting off with a 4 x 4 ft area. This is nothing fancy and requires daily watering with a sprinkler or soaker hose. We used cement blocks filled with cheap compost from the local dump, and put herbs around the outside in the small holes. Put shorter plants on the east side to get morning sun. This example would be mostly full sun. Do something like 4 tomato plants in 4 of the square feet. Some tomato varieties cross pollinate, so best to stick to one big variety and one cherry variety if your want them. Put them on the furthest west row. If you want peppers, do 4 pepper plants in another 4 square feet. On the next row. There's half your garden (8 square feet). You'll want tomato cages for the tomatoes and peppers. For each additional square foot (8 left), you can pick a variety of the following per each square foot:
4 bean plants (bush unless you have a trellis)
9 onions
9 spinach
6 carrots
16 radishes
2 kale
2 potatoes
2 cucumbers
1 sweet potato
4 garlic
1 melon
1 egg plant
2 basil
2 parsley
1 oregano (this will spread!)
There are so many more! Do a quick image search for square foot garden planting guide!
Basically, find out what grow zone you are in first. This way you will know what grows well in your area and how early you can plant it. Also grow season lengths and how long it takes a plant to bear food is something to keep in mind especially up north. (Sorry I'm assuming you're in US).
https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
I recommend starting small and starting with foods you like to eat that work in your grow zone. For your first year, I also recommend not starting from seed even though it's cheaper, but entirely up to you. It's hard to harden off baby plants, or it is for me anyways. Easier to start seeds directly outside for me.
You'll want to assess how much space you have and how much sun that area gets. Get plants that work in full sun or part shade depending on your available space.
For small spaces, look into square foot gardening or container gardening. Some examples, tomatoes and peppers like one plant per square foot. Cucumbers are two per square foot, but they need something to climb. There is even hay bale gardening. Something called companion planting is also really helpful to know eventually. Like beans with corn so the beans have something to climb, or basil with tomatoes because the basil keeps the tomato worms away. Marigolds to keep out rabbits.
If you're just tilling up a square patch in your backyard, be sure to till in some sort of fertilizer or compost before planting or putting down seeds. You want the soil fairly loose. If you're doing a bed above ground or container planting, fill with some good compost.
Some plants like acidic soil or non-acidic soil better, but I wouldn't worry too much about all of that right away. Just something to keep in mind if a plant doesn't do well one year. Also, some plants like a lot of water and others don't. You can kind of tell by keeping an eye on them. Better to water in the morning before the heat of the sun. In the evening promotes fungus growth over night.
This website sells amazing seeds and has some really good tips: https://www.seedsavers.org/learn#garden-planning
To begin, I recommend starting off with a 4 x 4 ft area. This is nothing fancy and requires daily watering with a sprinkler or soaker hose. We used cement blocks filled with cheap compost from the local dump, and put herbs around the outside in the small holes. Put shorter plants on the east side to get morning sun. This example would be mostly full sun. Do something like 4 tomato plants in 4 of the square feet. Some tomato varieties cross pollinate, so best to stick to one big variety and one cherry variety if your want them. Put them on the furthest west row. If you want peppers, do 4 pepper plants in another 4 square feet. On the next row. There's half your garden (8 square feet). You'll want tomato cages for the tomatoes and peppers. For each additional square foot (8 left), you can pick a variety of the following per each square foot:
4 bean plants (bush unless you have a trellis)
9 onions
9 spinach
6 carrots
16 radishes
2 kale
2 potatoes
2 cucumbers
1 sweet potato
4 garlic
1 melon
1 egg plant
2 basil
2 parsley
1 oregano (this will spread!)
There are so many more! Do a quick image search for square foot garden planting guide!