A Dig for Victory allotment

So here's the thing: I'm completely new to this whole gardening lark, and while I'm very enthusiastic about turning my 120 metres squared allotment into a productive piece of land, I have really got the faintest idea where to begin.

So I rambled in to Chapters Bookshop in Parnell St and bought myself a second-hand copy of Gardening for Dummies (on the basis that the fundamental techniques of gardening don't really change between editions of the text; it's not as if there's new functionality in Version Next of a spade, for example).

Of course, I also had a look on Google.

While looking through some Web results on the topic "Starting your won allotment" I found some interesting references to a campaign called Dig for Victory. This intrigued me. This was an initiative for every adult in Britain to keep an allotment for the duration of WW2. Lawns and flower-beds were turned into vegetable gardens. People could have a little extra to eat outside of their government-sanctioned rations.

Here's the important bit for me - instructional leaflets were distributed describing how to create a productive vegetable allotment, aimed at people who had never grow anything but dahlias and roses prior to that time.

[Click image to enlarge]

So for my first attempt at allotment-ing, I reckon I'm going to grow a Dig for Victory garden. What are you going to do with your bit of earth?
--