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My choice is an object of no aesthetic quality whatsoever, and of our recent history, but one which has revolutionised the way we garden. Before the advent of the plastic plant pot, the vast majority of garden plants were either grown from seed or bought as bare root subjects, usually grown locally direct in the soil and sold during spring and autumn when conditions were right for digging them up - and for planting them too.

The plastic plant pot brought year-round plant purchasing to the masses, their light weight (almost featherweight compared to the clay pots they usurped) enabling nurseries to grow and export plants around the world in vast quantities and in turn, fuelling the burgeoning garden centre industry. Ironically whilst the content of the pot may be environmentally benign or even positive, the manufacture and disposal of the pot - which are produced and got rid of in the hundreds of thousands every year - is anything but.