I originally only had 10 acres that came with my house and it was mostly wooded with non-mast bearing trees like Maples and Poplar that I slowly converted to food sources to benefit deer and turkey in particular. Stuff like fruit trees, nut trees and berry bushes and cover/browse. I bought the 22 acres next door to my house almost 5 years ago now and have 32 total acres combined. Of that new 22 acres I would estimate 12 acres of it was abandon pasture that was mostly goldenrod and a few native apples, the other 10 acres is wooded with similar Maple, Poplar with a few Hemlocks. The only food sources I started with was some browse and wild apples, and all the woods within a 5 mile radius look just like that. So like you, I had a large clean slate to start with management-wise. A lot of Chainsaw work making trails and getting sun to the forest floor, and babying along seedlings (watering 1st year, tree tubes and cages) due to my shoe string budget.
By the end of my spring 2020 order I have planted just over 1,000 trees, shrubs and bushes, all focused on (diverse and unique to my area) food sources for Deer, Turkey and also things my family would eat like Chestnuts, Hazels, Butternut, Pecans and many various fruit trees from Pears and Persimmon to PawPaw's. With everything that is going on in this world today, having a food source for the family in the backyard is a little peace of mind, even if only the wildlife get the most benefit. Researching everything I kept the mindset that some things not common to my area might live, but we always have late frosts and might never have a long enough growing season to produce what I wanted, Persimmon and PawPaw's come to mind there.
As far as how and where to plant, I started with forming the main walking/4wheeler/perimeter trails for access and planting screening like pines on my borders with the "nosy neighbors' (they drive deer during bow season grrrr). Once I knew the deer's general travel patterns I nailed down known/obvious treestand and blind locations and plotted them on a map. Then I basically planted most things in straight lines or in pie wedge shapes (with the point of the wedge pointing at the treestand) while factoring in prevailing winds and access trails to get to them quietly and without kicking the deer out when approaching the stands. For example I would plant 50 Oak trees upwind from the future stand in a wedge shape and then later planted shorter stuff like High Bush Cranberry, Dogwood and Allegheny Chinquapin as a perimiter to the Oaks 20-30 feet away so when the Oaks are more mature it will be a feathered edge as opposed to just a stand of oaks. I left plenty of room between wedge or inline plantings so it just stays goldenrod for wide shooting lanes and possibly future strips of food plots down the road if I ever get access to the equipment.
To be honest I was intimidated (as you likely are) as I have no mentor, and all the researching, planning, buying and then the work was on me. The last thing anyone wants is to grow a bunch of trees in spot X and wish they were planted where Y is 10 years later. I will say, the guys in this group are VERY knowledgeable and always helpful so don't be afraid to ask or try something, if you plant food they will come, you just may have to adjust stands or blind strategy later. With everything I have planted I bear in mind that when it all is matured and producing food, deer patterns WILL change some.
Hope that helps more than it confuses lol