If you're just starting out in a small backyard or community garden, try growing only a few tomato plants at first- perhaps four to eight plants of two to three different varieties. If you choose types that mature at different times, you can stretch your harvest over many weeks. If you're buying seeds to start your own plants, read the catalog descriptions carefully to find out when each variety ripens. Nursery-grown plants are often labelled early, midseason, or late to indicate their ripening period. Another consideration in choosing tomato varieties is whether the vines are determinate or indeterminate.
Determinate plants grow to a certain height and then stop.
Because of their more restrained size, most determinate varieties often need no staking or caging. They set all their fruit within a relatively short period of time- usually about a week to 10 days. This can be a boon if you're canning, but for the gardener who prefers to have a fewer number of tomatoes over a longer period of time, indeterminate varieties are better. These continue to grow in height throughout the season, and set fruits over a longer period of time. There are a huge number of popular tomato varieties, and plenty of them would probably do well in your garden.