Welcome! Start off small with your planting! You only have so much energy and time in the day so I say don't go more than maybe 25 crops until you get some upgrades. Variety in your crops is good especially since you'll need different crops for bundles. Don't stress about getting everything done in a day. You aren't able to. This game is all about time management. So plan out your day one thing at a time. Little goals help. On rainy days go fishing or mining since you won't have to water your crops. Get the bag upgrade as soon as you can. A bigger bag means you can carry more stuff which means more money! Fix the bridge down by the beach ( you need 300 wood) as early as you can since there are lots of goodies over there. If you are planning on having animals (which you will possibly need for bundles) make sure you get a silo early on so you can cut all the grass on your farm to get hay (note: if your silo is full, cutting grass won't give you hay) On that same note it is good to leave some grass on your farm near where you are planning coops and barns so that you can let your animals out to graze on nice days. Animals won't starve and die but they will stop producing goods if they are unhappy. Look at the official wiki if you have any questions. You can use the search option to find what you need. If I think of any more I will add it here!
Build a coop/barn in the fall of year 1 so you can remove hay from your silo and then stockpile more by cutting down the rest of the grass. The grass will disappear come winter (until spring), so it's best to do this so it's not wasted. I typically do my fishing on days with at least "a little extra luck", but I definitely always do it on days where the spirits are "very happy". Other days I'll go into the mines, usually (though that also depends on whether I've been waiting for a rainy day to get a rainy day fish from that season). I usually do this when I have the resources/money to use crops/food to replenish my energy. Make sure to keep an eye out for the little "wiggling worms" as you run around and try to find foraging items in the various screens, as well. You can find stone and clay from them, but more importantly lost books and artifacts, which you turn in at the museum. Try to at least get your watering can to Copper level before Spring of Year 1 ends. Make sure to either set it up to be worked on when the weather forecast says it's going to rain the next day...or on Day 27 after you've finished watering stuff (it'll be ready on Day 1 of the next season in this case). This will help save you some time while watering stuff, and it'll also save you a bit of energy, as well. ^^ ...like Zoeevee, if I think of anything else, I'll add it here as well, heh. =x
^Exactly that. When you have a coop or barn you can pull the hay from the feeder inside by right clicking. If you make sure you don't have the hay "equipped" (make sure you have a tool or something in your hands) You can keep on right clicking to pull a bunch of hay out and keep it in chests. And that reminds me. Make some chests as soon as you can so you can have lots of storage space (try and keep one of everything at least since you never know what you need) You can place chests anywhere, even around town but if an NPC runs into it they will destroy it so place it somewhere no one walks and be careful what valuables you keep in there. Hold on to some fiber and all your sap, wood, and stone. You'll need stone and wood to upgrade buildings and craft stuff and eventually you can make basic fertilizer out of sap which will give you better quality crops which sell for more.
Selling some of the sap you come across the first few days can be a good way to get an infusion of money, so you can plant more parsnips and/or tulips, though! That's usually what I do, anyway. Also, I wouldn't bother clearing out the area you're not working in. At least not until winter. If you wait, then there's a chance that giant mushrooms can appear in the area, which you can tap for mushroom drops. I usually just clear a decent path to the north and south exits, and then clear a 10-15 square buffer outside of my work area until the winter comes...that way I can save my energy for other things. That is...unless you need wood for something, at least. Another thing, if you cut down trees outside of your farm and leave the stumps, they won't grow back. There's a few trees that this is useful on because sometimes forageables and dig spots can spawn behind them and they can be a pain to see with the full sized tree in the way. If you cut out the trunk, a new sapling will start growing in that spot the next day...so it's possible to get a few trees a year from the same spot. Also, once you get the "Foraging" skill tos how up (I think it's lvl 1 though it might be lvl 2)...right clicking on the trees can give you their seeds, which can be used for field snacks...which is a great early game way of replenishing your food. Also, you can place tappers on the trees outside of your farm. I normally put my first couple of tappers on the pines on the northern path out and on the maple and oak trees on the eastern path out. ^^
Do nothing but fish. Like me. But yeah, seriously, my focus was on building up my finances so I don't have to grind later and piecemeal my farm together. With fishing all day every day from the river immediately south of your farm, by mid fall year 1 I had 50k gold. And Now I'm supplementing with baitless crab pots because I plan to use the recycling machine later on. Like the only crops I've ever had are the parsnips you get at the start of the game, a handful of Wild Seeds from clearing out the farm and now a single corn stalk (yet I'm somehow still featured as one of the best farms around, lol). So yeah, it may be slow and monotonous just fishing everyday, but if you're focused on getting financially secure before going heavy into the game, fishing is the way to go. And foraging.
Don't go to sleep on the 28 of Winter in your first year if you've not yet learned how to suppress George from the Wizard - (try and befriend him by Summer 30). I don't know - you don't 'have' to, the game is still playable afterwards, but you're going to have a shitty fall and probably a crummy winter trying to get all your progress back, especially if you have to rebuild any outbuildings (which is the only way you make much profit in winter in the first year.) The effects will probably be nerfed in the 1.07 patch, but who knows when that'll come in.
Always have some kind of tree source setup around your farm...I've learned that from my mistakes runnign out of wood and forcing myself to cut down trees outside the farm.
Dont craft first tier sprinklers,its never worth it. And oh,always put stuff into the CC after you unlock it,its a big part of the game! Fishing and mining is VERY Important i tell ya,it can make you big time while it rains. Fertilizers are always worth it.
Wait. "Suppress" george from the wizard? HUH?! I am oh so confused...how many hearts with the Wizard do you have to get, though?
Oh shit, seriously? Shit, man, you did that in the wrong order - there's a reason people tell you to befriend the Wizard early. Anyways, you were supposed to have the Wizard to seven hearts and have hit his four heart conversation with the Dwarf and Krobos in the sewer .
...............how the heck are you supposed to pull this off before that? lol. I mean, aren't the sewers LOCKED until you hand in 60 artifacts/minerals? I usually can't even get that unlocked until AT MINIMUM summer of year 1, usually fall or winter, though. People never told me to befriend the wizard early! =x
I did that already. AND WAHT WILL HAPPEN MAN? WHAT?! WHAT!!!!!!! And oh i think a heart decayed thats why i got 3 with him.
Nothing. Probably. Probably nothing? Hopefully nothing - I mean, I don't want to spoil anything, so... let's just say nothing and you can get back to me after... if... anything does or does not happen. Grinding the mines, my friend. Grind city! It's worth it, though.
That is certainly a question you have chosen to ask. I'm sure it has answer on the scale of yes to no.