First time nerves!!!

Hello

I've just joined and have introduced myself on the Introduce yourself board and now I have nipped over here to ask for a bit of help, as you do!!

Got a lovely well looked after allotment, all done on the very traditional long bed system - ie. no raised beds with paths and such like.   Already has summer and autumn-fruiting raspberries, rhubarb, balckcurrants and blackberries.   It's a half plot with about 5 bed areas to play with.   I have potatoes chitting away at home, some onion sets and some garlic.   I also have about a million packets of seeds - lots of freebies from magazines like carrot, beetroot, pea.   I am dying to get going, but I have got an attack of nerves about when to start it all and the feeling that once things are underway it has so much more potential to all go horribly wrong!!!   See, at the moment, I have wonderful looking beds of crumbly soil that I have gone over and weeded and it all looks so perfect.   When you flick through magazines and books it all looks lovely too because they plop in all the veg that is all at the same size and has never seen a slug or a pigeon.   I have tried in the past to raise seed on the windowsill and I always go too early so by the time it can go out, it is way too leggy and spindly.   My little back garden faces due north and is surrounded by houses, so anything I have practised in the past has yielded only disappointment.   Now I have my own little mini-homestead I want to make a good start and get it right.   Any advice and encouragement will be gratefully received.

Lara

Hello Lara, there's nothing to worry about.
In you first year some things will work well, some things not so well, and some will  just never mind......it's finding out what works for you and your plot

here is a sowing chart, so you get some idea when to start sowing what
http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/general/sowing-harvest-vegetable-chart.php

and here are pages to help with crop rotation
http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/crop-rotation/crop-family-group.php

Anymore questions?...just ask away

Welcome LaraJ you've joined a good site here , you will get mixed views on here but it's all done to try and help. I got a lottie about 2 years ago and had to start from scratch , back braking digging , grass growing past my knees but it sounds like you've got an established plot so well done you . My first year i tried to cheat nature with a warm propagator , lost the lot through leggy veg dampening seedlings , the prop is now in the shed . Inow read the seed packets and follow those and start stuff in the potting shed and then convert to the cool greenhouse and cold frame before planting out. I dont use window sills at home anymore , my better half cough! thinks they look unsitely don't know why , who where's the pants ? At the moment all i've got going , apart from stuff i put in last year is chitting spuds ready to put in on St Patricks day or thereabouts. You'll find you will learn very Quickly and the best of luck and enjoy and remember it's a marathon not a sprint, Oh and don't get disappointed at losses cos we all get them , even the guys that have been growing years .

Wecome LaraJ

Everybody makes mistakes.
Mine when I first started included but not limited to.
1 Leaving plastic cover on seed trays after germination, plants get leggy.
2 Planting to close to each other, end up having to hand weed.
3 Puting plants in, intending to get some net the following day, only to find the pigeons get up early than I do and need breakfast, my plants.

Enjoy, relax and take time to sit back with a cup of tea and be proud of what you have done. Even a clear bed with nothing growing looks great after you have spent time weeding. 

Welcome to ths brilliant forum! You will find everyone on here so helpful and you may have some advice to give us later on. We never stop learning or get everything right, even after years at it. One bit of advice is to get yourself a little book and write down what seeds you have, when to sow them, where they go and also their spacings. Also, have another page to write down the jobs you have to do. This will help clear your mind and it's a great feeling when you cross some items off. At the end of the year, write down what was good and what to try or do / not to do next year. I'm a bit further up than salvo and I haven't sown anything yet. Don't try to accomplish things too quickly or grow too many different things - most of all - good luck!