Beginners Guide to Allotments

Hi, Just by way of an introduction, I'd like to introduce ourselves.
We are three very ordinary people ......... Sand, Kat and Tom. Actually apart from myself we are all "Townies" that is to say beginners and frankly none of us started this "allotment gardening business" with anything more than a scant amount of know how when it came to vegetable or allotment gardening.
So - the point is where do you begin? How do you start? This is all mysterious stuff ....... one thing we did find out, to our cost, was that we needed to stop learning by our mistakes and get it right first time. Not that it is a life or death situation when it does go wrong but after a lot of backbreaking work and many hours of intensive labour, it really is the most dishearteneing feeling when you have to start re-arranging everything or all your litle seeds wither up and die.
Right, well your'e not reading this unless you need some help so after today we are going to look at some very basic advice - even before you reach for the spade. See you soon xx Sandkat