One of the perks of RHS membership, that I haven’t used often, is the annual batch of seeds that can be had for a low price – presently 15 packets for £10, including delivery. Some of these are fairly common but there are also many that you’d never find in the average garden centre and, given that packets of garden centre seed tend to start at two to three pounds, that’s excellent value.

In fact, I think I’ve only made use of the scheme once before, the autumn after we’d moved into our house in Oxford. I didn’t end up even trying all of the seeds and some didn’t do well or last long but we’ve still got some plants in our present garden that came from that batch, like hyssop and love-in-the-mist, so a worthwhile investment. That was over a decade ago and we decided it was time to take another punt.

The seeds won’t arrive until after Christmas but it will be exciting to get them in soil and see what results we get this time round.