What to plant
What to plant depends on what your family likes to eat and what you plan on preserving. It also depends on what types of fruits and vegetables do well in your area. Ask neighbors, talk to the folks at the local garden center, or call the extension office in your county for advice.
Several notes on choosing varieties. Don’t pick F1 hybrids if you plan on saving the seed (which I HIGHLY recommend). They won’t reproduce true but will come out like one of the original parents. Choose open pollinated or heirloom varieties. Plan on including vegetables from many families.
I grow carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabagas, two types of potatoes (German butterball and Russett), lettuce, Swiss chard, two types of cabbage (an early for summer coleslaw and a late, Danish ballhead, for sauerkraut), broccoli, yellow wax beans (easier to find come picking time than green and just as tasty), three types of shelling peas, yellow summer squash, butternut squash, five types of tomatoes (two romas for sauce and soup, two slicing tomatoes for eating and for sauce and soup, and Principe (a small tomato which is the tomato of choice in Tuscany, Italy, for drying), jalapeno peppers, yellow onions (best for storing), and two types of garlic (Music is my go-to for huge cloves, great production, and decent storing capability). A perennial bed in the front has prickly pear, horseradish, and rhubarb.
The culinary herbs I grow are thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, chives, oregano, basil, cilantro, bay laurel, and mustard (for pickles). The rosemary and bay laurel are in large pots because they are tender perennials and cannot take the cold in my area, so they spend the winter in the basement under a west-facing window. The medicinal herbs are calendula, chamomile, elderberry, lavender, valerian, bee balm, lemon balm, echinacea, anise hyssop, peppermint, spearmint, and wintergreen. I can’t offer medical advice, but there are many good websites that can help with which herbs to use for what ailments. By the way, many culinary herbs are also used medicinally.
When to plant
Plant as early as possible so your plants will be a larger size when the pests come out. Here in the Northeast, I start the following inside under grow lights in early March: onions, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes. Onions are transplanted out March 18, when peas and potatoes get direct sown. March 22 beets are direct sown. April 5 carrots, Swiss chard, and any greens, such as lettuce, are direct sown. April 19 the broccoli and cabbage get transplanted out. May 17 peppers and tomatoes get transplanted out while beans, cucumbers, and squash are direct sown. I use https://garden.org/apps/calendar for my planting schedules.
All the transplant and direct sow dates are, of course, weather dependent. Some years, there’s still snow in the beds until mid-April, and I have to rearrange my timing. There is much more detail as to when the fall crops get started indoors or direct sown outside, so if you plan on fall/winter gardening, find a planting schedule for your area. I always have things growing in the fall. Last year, I pulled the fall carrots right after the new year. They were under double layers for protection and, while small, were quite tasty.
