Terry Walton (the allotment guy) was asked this same question today.
He just offered :-
- Get the catalogues, but don't always have high expectations as turning out like the pictures.
- Go and talk to your local garden centre.
- With the credit crunch on us, do not try anything new at the moment, just the well tried veggies, etc., that you know will be of use and can have success with.
Not a gardener at all, but Terry Walton appears to be really good .. have you listened to him Pipinfort/Monkey ?
Seems you can E-mail him and does answer quite a majority of queries in person. This is one link, you may be able to find better.
Gardeners Click - Radio 2's Terry Walton