Our neighbor is a master gardener. His garden is wonderful and full of heirloom tomatoes. He gives us everything so our garden is all flowers with daylilies and herbs. In fact I cook with herbs all the time and have cut way back on salt. You might want to check out the heirloom varieties of tomatoes and look for one with "Russian" in the name. It is very large and meaty with the best flavor. You should look for a Master Gardener class in your area. They not only share information but they share produce.

 I grew up gardening thanks dad. anyway what you want to do is plan it out before hand. Find out what grows well where you live. Then if you can start your garden inside from seeds. You will get better plants this way.  And also when you plant your veggies plant flowers around the garden or in it. They bring in bees that help to pollinate your veggies. and well they look great.

A tip with your Tomatoes is not to dig a hole them drop them straight in. hold your plant under the last set of leaves and bend dont break the stem and plant it that way. It kinda looks like a weird J. Doing this gives it a bigger root base and it will produce more fruit for you. It is also great as it helps with those areas that are hotter and drier as it makes it easier to soak up water. 
  

I always plant four gardens;

(1) a salsa garden withTomatoes, onions, hot peppers and garlic. 

(2) tomato garden, for stewing and making spagetti sauce. 

(3) squash garden; summer squash (zuchinni and summer squash), for canning and pickling.  I can enough to have plenty to get me through the winter. I also put in winter and spagetti squash which stores very well in my basement throught the winter.

(4) salad garden; lettuce, spinach, raddishes, green onions, green peppers, cucumbers, green beans.


Because I'm not getting any younger.  This winter will start a four year make over of my garden area.  First my salsa garden will be made into a raised garden, then each of the next three winters each of the other gardens will be raised. 

I like knowing where my food came from, and I really enjoy canning in the fall.  I'll be real excited when all my gardens are raised up and a cobble stone walk way surround them.
 
I live in Colorado and have a much shorter growing season than you, so each of my raised gardens will have perminant pipes mounted along the side of the raised garden box, to allow for a temporary green house, to hopefully extend my growing season a month in the spring and a month in the fall, removing the green house when the temperatures allow.

Because we also have irrigation water, I'm planning on adding a drip system to each garden.

All this probably overwhelms you, but this is where your first garden might lead you to. 

Have fun, gardening is a blast, well everything except the weeds.  That's where wet newspaper comes in nice.  Place wet news paper around all your plants and then mulch, this will really help you with the weed situation.  Next year just rototill the old news papers right into the soil.

Tomatoes, green beans and zuchinni  are a first garden must.  Both take up quite a bit of space, so give them plenty of room.  The following year, you'll have a better idea of what you might want to add.

Good luck, and post pictures when you get it up and going.

ooh I love to garden!!  My first year I had 20 tomato plants, 8 yellow squash, 4 zukes, 1/2 row cucumbers,  3 rows of sweet corn, 2 of peaches and cream corn, a half row of radish, the other half with butternut squash, a row of mustard greens and the rest of the garden (about 8 rows) of peas and peas and more peas!  Ikept pretty much the same thing last year except moved up to 25 tomato plants and 2 rows of cucumbers

And certainly don't wait until spring, it will be too late !
Verify your zone here
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-se1.html

Then go dig up a spot of a few inches / a foot around and about the same deep... is it dark crumbly soil? sandy? clay? gravel? Find your local extension office if you want to have your soil pH etc tested.

This link of monthly gardening chores is for Austin, Tx, but they are in my zone (8b)
http://gardeninglaunchpad.com/M.M.html

there is also this planting schedule for zone 7-8
http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules/zones-7-8-planting-schedule

I have had good luck with seeds from
http://www.victoryseeds.com/
http://rareseeds.com/shop/

My first year gardening I had yellow squash and zuchini out my ears! No tomatoes. Last year I had tomatoes breaking the stakes and hardly any squash! I put a Tbs of Epsom salt and a Tbs of Lime in the hole when I transplanted the tomato plants and they took off!
I have just tilled my garden and planted an 8'x8' bed of garden peas and I have another area tilled for more of the same, but I have to set up the trellis fence and put out some more compost.

I love gardening!!

by the way... if you are interested in smaller scale try square foot gardening. It is insane what you can plant in a 1' x 1' bed!!
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/