Nice thread, I just started buying some stuff last week. This will be the first year I've been involved personally - usually our "garden" is just a place for my daughter to play. And honestly I have no clue what I'm doing, hopefully youtube isn't lying to me about how to do this... LOL.

Doing russets and fingerlings in a whiskey barrel - similar to the video above.
Some herbs in some smaller pots, and planning to put some other herbs and some green onions in the semi-shady area under the deck.
Carrots, maybe some onions too. I wanted to do garlic, but apparently it's too late for that...?
I'd love to do tomatoes, peppers and green beans as well, but I'm not sure how much is too much to bite off for a first year.

Ideally, if I don't end up killing all this stuff, I'd like to turn the crappy little dirt pile we have in the corner of the yard into a raised bed - maybe next year. We have a serious rabbit population, and I'm concerned they're going to get everything that's not a couple feet off the ground.