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Purple-leaved varieties make a sophisticated backdrop for brighter flowers – good partners include tulips, alliums or chives.

Early perennials like primulas (including candelabra, denticulata and polyanthus), pulmonaria, brunnera and dicentra are real treasures in the garden, providing a splash of colour soon after winter at the very start of the season, just when you need it most. These stalwart little garden performers arrive in the garden centre here in Lymington from early autumn, so make a note in your diary to pop in and stock up to fill your borders with colour next spring.

It’s said to be one of the herbs in baby Jesus’s manger; young girls would make a potion with it to help them dream of the man they would marry, and thyme patches are also the best place for seeing fairies.

Held in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace in south-west London, the show is the largest in the world, packed with top-class horticulture, fabulous show gardens and a host of inspirational features.

“With slugs and snails regularly topping the list of gardener complaints we want to know if home remedies have a role to play or are nothing more than a plantsman’s placebo.”