This trend, combined with the resurgence in popularity of people growing their own fruit, herbs and vegetables as they become more concerned about the origin and nutritional quality of their food, has led to the gardening fraternity's prediction that growing vegetables in containers will be very big news in 2006.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Britain's leading gardening charity and the organiser of all its major shows, a leading British seed supplier has now announced that, last year, for the first time since the Second World War, their sales of vegetable seeds outstripped their sales of flower seed.

That is quite big news.

Growing your own ensures that fresh seasonal produce, full of flavour and hopping with vitamins, is reaching your plate. And, really, you don't have to be an expert gardener to grow them, particularly if you choose your varieties carefully.

In an effort to encourage people, the RHS, which also trials everything at their Wisley grounds, has issued its Top 10 vegetable cultivars for growing in containers, which range from flower pots to large tubs.

Each has been given the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), a measure of excellence after extensive trials, denoted by a trophy symbol on labels on plants to help gardeners make informed choices. These plants should demonstrate excellent performance in the garden, be commercially available and not require any specialist growing conditions.

The RHS maintains (and experienced gardeners will already know this) that quickgrowing vegetables with a compact habit are perfect for pots and containers. And because these are most often placed on a paved area that is sheltered by the house, vegetables can be planted earlier in containers than in open ground.

The society recommends the following 10 varieties, all awarded the AGM, for container growing:

1. Gardeners' delight. An excellent smaller tomato, tasty and prolific, it sprouts from seed as easily as mustard and cress. Sow in a welllit position indoors in March, or buy as plants if you can get them. Transplant into outdoor containers in May, after gradual hardening off first.

2. Redskin. A sweet pepper that you treat in the same way as the tomatoes.

3. The salad onion Guardsman, which is sown from March onwards.

4. The onion Turbo, which is grown from "sets" (small bulbs) planted in February.

5. Little Gem, the stalwart lettuce sown from March onwards.

6. The dwarf French bean Ferrari, the seed of which is sown directly into the container in May.

7. The beetroot known as Pablo, sown directly into its container from March onwards.

8. A carrot called Napoli, sown from February onwards, though you'll probably have to protect early sowings against the cold with clear polythene or horticultural fleece.

9. Market Express, a white turnip (swede), the seed of which is sown from March onwards.

10 Mimi. Last but not least is a salad or boiling potato called Mimi, available at Hosford's near Clonakilty, west Cork, and other good garden centres at the moment. This is a small, red first early.

Resistant to scab, it came top of a recent taste test of new varieties. Plant the tubers into containers in March and protect the new growth from late frosts with horticultural fleece, or by bringing indoors.

For successful growing, aim for containers with a depth and width of at least 45cm (18inches). This will avoid you having to water and feed so frequently. . . very useful if you're going away for a few days in dry weather.

The RHS says "use sterile potting compost such as that from a grow-bag" but I got a great crop of different lettuces last year by using a mixture of homemade garden compost, crumbly leaf mould, loam-based John Innes No.

1, some horticultural sand and some powdered seaweed stirred into the mix.

Drainage at the bottom of containers is also very important, so line them with a layer of crocks or pebbles.

Mixing well-rotted animal manure into the compost in the lower half of the container is also a very effective organic fertiliser.

Any crop planted before the end of May could be damaged by frost, so move pots into the most sheltered position possible and cover with horticultural fleece if the temperature drops.

The RHS Trials team will be at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in London from 4 to 9 July, with displays of their chosen vegetables in containers.

Oliver and Liat Schurmann of Mount Venus Nursery in Rathfarnham, south Dublin, intend to bring another show garden there this year, so Irish interest should be high.

Tickets from the booking line on 00 -44 - 870 906 3791.

DIARY 11 March, 3pm at the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9: Irish Plant Conservation - Priorities & Practice, an illustrated lecture by Dr Steve Waldren, curator of Trinity College Botanic Garden and a leading scientist involved in research and practical conservation on endangered native Irish plants. Admission free.