Below is a selection of the best vegetable seed suppliers...

■ Green Vegetable Seeds (greenvegetableseeds.com) sells the best varieties of vegetable seeds selected by expert organic grower Klaus Laitenberger, the head gardener at the Organic Centre in Co Leitrim who restored the gardens at Lissadell House. Seeds are selected for their disease resistance and suitability to the Irish climate... and, of course, varieties that burst with taste.

■ Mr Middleton Garden Shop (mrmiddleton.com) is Ireland’s oldest mail-order garden shop and has served us for almost 40 years. They have thousands of varieties of vegetable seeds, as well as being the sole Irish distributor of Thomson & Morgan seeds, found in garden centres across the country.

■ The Irish Seed Savers Association (irishseedsavers.ie) is a non-profit charity that was set up in 1991 in Co Clare to save Ireland’s heritage and heirloom vegetable seeds, potatoes, grains and fruit trees from extinction. They now have more than 800 varieties of organic, open-pollinated heritage seeds in their purpose-built seed bank. Their delightful and interesting 2020 seed catalogue can be browsed online and seeds can also be bought online.

■ Marshalls (marshallsgarden. com) is a UK company that has a large range of vegetable seeds and also sells young plants of favourites like tomatoes, salads and beetroot. Seed-only delivery to Ireland costs £4.99.

■ Seeds giant Mr Fothergill’s (mr-fothergills.co.uk) has an excellent variety of vegetable seeds and young plants, and a handy range of budget seeds, for those wanting cheap and cheerful varieties. Delivery to Ireland costs £5.

■ Suttons (suttons.co.uk) has been in business for over 200 years. It sells vegetable seeds and young plants and offers ‘gourmet roots’ like yacon. Delivery to Ireland costs £4.99 up to package weights of 2kg.