A few things you need to consider before you get started. First off kudos for wanting to start small. Often times people (like me) have grandiose ideas that there is no way they can bring to fruition. Whereas starting small and having success is always encouraging.

First off you need to consider where you live and what plant hardiness zone are you in. This is going to help you determine when to plant. If you live in the northeast, like me, my gardening season hasn't quite started yet. What they call cool weather crops, like peas, lettuce, kale, collards, broccoli can already be in the ground (mine are not - the yards been too wet). Other things that like warm weather (tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cucumbers), I have seedlings for but usually don't plant out until Memorial Day weekend. Some beans, squashes and cucumbers I'll direct sow into the ground (They usually don't like their roots disturbed.)

Next you need to determine what you like to eat. There's no sense in planting turnips if your family hates them.

Thirdly, will what you like to eat grow in your climate. I like mangoes, but it would be ridiculous for me to try and grow them in upstate NY. I like broccoli and tomatoes too. Those I can get to grow in my area.

So a few things to consider. I also recommend having a tiny section to try things. There are quite a few things that are considered easy to grow that I have a terrible time with and vise versa. So one section of the garden I usually try something new to see if I can grow it.

Probably, the easiest thing to start with would be herbs, if you buy them potted. Chose the ones you like to use, plant them with a 6 -12 inches distance. You may harvest the greens whole summer long. If you brave enough to do mistakes - just chose the plants you would like to grow from what is available in the store. I wouldn't recommend to start anything from seeds first year(with exception of beans, lettuce and radishes). Do some reading on the plants you want in the internet - you can ask particular questions here and people will answer based on their experience, but you have to educate yourself from other sources as well - there are a lot of them in the internet. Just do not use WIKI and e-how - the information there is very shallow and sometimes wrong. When you chose what plants you want, you can either send me an email or post them here. I will try to give you links to the proper articles to read about them. But you need to do it fast. Time to start lettuce and radishes already here. For transplants you can wait couple more weeks, but not more - plants in the stores will overgrow their pots and they do not receive new ones by the end of the selling season.
Few things to consider right away:
1) if you going to the store to buy plants, it will be great to take some experience gardener with you to help to choose proper plants.
2) If you go alone, choose plants that looks fresh and green, without spots on the leaves.
3) Do not try to buy "more" plants in the same pot - the more they crowded, the more they struggle to grow.
4) When buying plants, keep in mind, that if plants were grown under glass they need "hardening" - gradual exposing them to sun and cool air. Even if plants are outside when you buy them it doesn't mean they already properly hardened(they are usually on multilayer crates and shading each other). So always set your newly bought plants in the light shade for a day or two before planting and expose them to the sun gradually, or use some bamboo sticks and old lace curtain to make artificial shade after you planted them for couple days..
Good luck!

Hi there mfran12345! First off glad to hear that you are interested in gardening. I was in the same boat as you are a year ago. And I made the same mistake that booberry85 above mentioned as well - we're a family of two but I had grand ideas of about what I wanted to do and had to scale things down as I had little spare time after work.

booberry85 has mentioned some great things for you to get started. I'd like to add a couple more things that you can do in parallel since time's a-ticking if you're in PA - the growing season is not very long and every day makes a difference up in the NE.

Once you've marked off your gardening spot, start prepping the area. If the plot has never been gardened before, you'll have to think about tilling it, and whether you're going raised bed or in-ground. You'll also have to take a look at the kind of soil you have, whether it will need amendments, etc.

There's loads of great info here on the site - the FAQ is always a good place to start (http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/cornucop/).

Feel free to reach out by email if you need more info, good luck!

Calvin

I'm thinking I want to do tomatoes, peppers, green beans, cucumber and beets. Tomatoes and peppers I'll buy the plants but what about the rest, seeds or plants? Thanks again everyone.

Green beans - seeds. To be able to plant them fast - go with bush beans. For pole beans you will have to build support. Do not soak seeds, just keep soil moist.
Beets - seeds as well. Soak them first and plant as soon as they germinate. Seed them as soon as possible.
Cucumbers you can start from seeds as well. However if cucumber beetles are a problem in your area - you have to cover them, and this is not the beginner task to do. If you still want them, may be easiest will be to go with bush cucumbers. In case you need to cover them later you can build the cover in place.
You will need support for tomatoes and peppers.
You also may want to get some general vegetable fertilizer .

In addition to all the above good advice you need to determine what gardening zone you are in as that will guide you as to planting dates, harvest times, and pest and diseases issues to some degree.

PA has 6 different zone that vary widely, eastern PA alone has 4 different zones.

I would also suggest you look up the location for your local county PA ag extension office and pay them a visit as they have all sorts of info available for you to use.

You mention the garden cam e with the house. What kind of shape is it in? Weedy and over grown or has it been well maintained? It will probably need some basic fertilizer tilled in this first year and then this fall you can get a soil test done to learn what all it will need for next year's better garden.

And if the garden tools didn't come with the house too you'll need to invest in some basic tools like a good basic rake, hoe, and shovel.

Good luck on your new adventure.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: PA Gardening zones

I'm in PA and just planted my cucumber seeds this week so you should be fine, My beans were planted about 3 weeks ago as they are a cooler crop an they look great, Beets were planted about 10 days ago and are coming up now so you should be fine with those also, Tomatoes an peppers will be planted Memorial weekend hopefully but you never know on this weather were having this year, I'm surprised nobody mentioned onions, I think they are 1 of the easiest to grow.

Just a little side note. If you aren't going to use the whole garden area, you might want to cover what you aren't going to use with weed cloth or cardboard so you don't get really invasive weeds in there!
I live ajacent to horse fields, so I get monster weeds that, once established are almost impossible to get rid of! Nancy

Do you think it's too late for bean seeds then, should I look for plants and get them in the ground as soon as possible? My plan is to wait a week or two to plant tomatoe and pepper plants and get some beet and cucumber seeds in the ground this weekend. Do I need to stager plantings, mostly tomatoes and peppers I mean, so all plants don't ripen and provide at the same time. Thanks so much everyone, you been so helpful so far. I really appreciate it.

Do you think it's too late for bean seeds then,

Not at all. Beans prefer warmer soil or they just rot. Even down here we are are just now planting beans. jimmy56 may be in a very different garden zone than you are.

You don't need to stagger plant tomatoes or peppers as even determinate tomato types will produce for the season. Indeterminate types will produce until killed by frost or disease.

Please keep in mind that as mentioned above you need to research how to grow each of these vegetables individually and there are lots of "how to grow ______ in a home garden" info sites. Each vegetable has different needs.

And expect some set backs too and roll with them. It is impossible to learn everything you need to know in 2 weeks or even 2 years.

Dave