New to allotments - help needed pls

You shouldn't plant the same family in the same place next year so it's a good idea to plant the same family in each raised bed. Then you can do this rotation thing which ensures that pests and diseases don't build up in the soil. You just shift your families one bed along next year you see and problem solved.

Watering is a hard question. If you water too much you will drown things. Some things need more water than others. Also if you want the roots to grow you need to encourage them to go looking for water which is why your advisor suggested not watering the ones that grow down.

But even then you do have to remember that if there is a long period of dry weather you will need to water everything. But how long hot and dry before watering is depends on your soil - mine is clay and retains water longer than if you have a finer soil that drains fast. So many ifs and buts you see. 

I just give most things a soak at the weekend if it hasn't been raining. I can't get down there during the week. Then I mulch as much as I can with compost and manure to make the soil as water retentive as I can.
I plant everything all over the place and vaguely try to move it around each year but often I have the same things in the same place 2 years running.
I used to worry about things like that but I don't now and most things grow OK.

If you dont ask, you'll never learn.

You shouldnt plant stuff in the same place year after year, for some, its a minor problem, for others, you can put the soil beyond use for over a decade (some sort of worm lays eggs that can last that long and will hatch if you try and plant whatever they eat, and it will not grow)

As for watering, I tend to give it a good soak whenever I can be bothered, maybe monthly, maybe less, but I grow fruit brushes, which should be able to develop deep enough roots to sort themselves out most of time.
Its not like all the blackberries died out before man invented the watering can.
If you water daily, you can encourage your plant to only grow shallow roots, if you then cant water for a few days, and the soil dries out, its in trouble.

Its not like all the blackberries died out before man invented the watering can.

  but then there also wasn't a man around with a spade and fork to turn over soil and change its overall structure so that manure and compost could be dug in, or alter the way the land lays so that excess water drains away (unnaturally)!  Not to mention that some wild plants will naturally perish if the seeds land where they are unlikely to survive and no-one notices that - BUT, it all becomes a bit different when cossetting your first crops and fruit bushes    These are going to be prize-winning, the biggest and the best, and you have empty freezers to fill, and family meals to cook (well, we all dream they will LOL, otherwise what's the point!) 

I would agree that a long thorough drenching now & again during dry weather is better than a quick watering every day.  Push your finger into the soil and if it is damp underneath the dry surface, then you don't need to water.  If you have to water (especially during a very prolonged dry patch), then when you think you have given the plants enough, push your finger into the soil - and don't be surprised to find that you have only watered the surface despite standing there with the hosepipe for an hour. 

Also think about your crops - summer fruiting crops (eg courgettes) need water to swell up, so during a long dry spell, they'd get my priority, also potatoes.  Make a note of how the plants are looking - if they look tired, leaves limp or going brown at the tips (like scorch marks due to loss of water, not blight!), then they are in need