THERE are some obstacles you face in the course of your life and you just wish someone would invent or market an enlightening product that would solve them.

Take, for instance, the fish knife. I know that most left-handed people - and cutlery swappers like me who prefer a fork in the right hand - can be put off ordering fish in a restaurant simply due to them changing the normal knife for the blunt, bent-necked fish variety.

If you have ever tried using one of these in your left hand, you will know just how impossible it is to co-ordinate properly. Having once gone through the trials of asking the waiting staff to leave my normal knife in place, I find it much easier to just order something else instead. I do love fish, but steak and chicken come with less hassle.

In the gardening world the last-but-one revelatory invention must have been the clip-on secateurs holster. I have many pairs of jeans with ragged holes in exactly the same place in the right back pocket (they usually have holes in the left knee as well, through kneeling, but that's just an occupational hazard).

The clip-on holster doesn't need a belt, but can be hooked over any pocket or even the waist belt of the trousers itself. Charlie Dimmock is always seen wearing one, usually on the front pocket. This amazingly simple idea leaves your pockets free for your pruning knife, plant labels, string, seeds and keys.

These are problems that never arise in winter because the well-equipped gardener is usually togged up in coats or jackets with a dozen pockets each in which to home all these bits and bobs. Summer is a different matter: T-shirts and jumpers just don't have the hiding capacity.

It's an in-work secret that I tend to end up shoving my mobile phone down my sock. People have actually told me that they feel odd ringing me up knowing that they are phoning my left ankle. What can I do? It's the only free space I have on me.

The other perennial curse of the gardener is the punctured wheelbarrow tyre. How many times have you loaded up the barrow with soil, plants, manure or compost, only to find that you can't push the thing because the tyre has gone flat? Over the last few years this has become a huge problem at Natures World. An intact wheelbarrow has become as precious as gold and people have developed intricate strategies for hiding and keeping ones that have yet to deflate.

This week, though, we were offered a revolutionary solution to our biggest headache. I was asked to remove a selection of wheels from our wheelbarrow casualty department and deliver them to the door of the centre manager, Mr Stuart Goldie. I didn't really give much thought to their fate. I thought maybe he was going to get them repaired... again.

How wrong I was. The wheels came back in a big cardboard box today. They have been transformed from the usual inflatable-tubed variety into a solid rubber tyre, fixed onto the hub. And that's not all. They have all been made in a range of vibrant bouncy colours.

A local company, the Green Tyre Company, has developed the technology to make the perfect, non-penetrable tyre out of recycled products. So, not only can I send the troops out with the correct equipment, but I can do so in the knowledge that we are doing our work with environmentally friendly products.

JOBS TO DO THIS WEEK

Dead-head daffodils

SOME of the early flowering daffodils will be going over now. In order to keep them at their best, they need to be prevented from producing seed. This just depletes energy. Pull the papery head off along with the swollen lump just behind it.

Cut yew hedges

YEW actually grows much quicker than people imagine. A clip this time of the year will keep it in shape as well as allowing the berries to form later in the year.

Sow brassicas

THE seeds of cabbage, sprouts and broccoli can be sown under glass now in time for cropping later this winter.

READERS' PROBLEMS

MR Sealey of Loftus wants to grow tomatoes this year, but organically for the first time. He wants to know what he can feed them on though, as he obviously can't use his usual chemical products.

A GOOD soil will contain all the nutrients that a plant needs in order to maintain healthy growth. However, if, as I presume he is, Mr Sealy is intending on growing the tomatoes in compost or pots, then the nutrient level will indeed need topping up from time to time.

The easiest feed to prepare yourself is one made from waste garden products. All that is needed is a large barrel, bucket or tub full of water (rain water if possible). Into this add either grass clippings, couch grass roots, nettles or best of all comfrey leaves. As the greenery decomposes, it releases all the minerals and nutrients into the water, which can be taken up by the tomatoes. It is not only an easy and productive way in which to feed your plants, but it's completely free. I am sure tomatoes taste better when you know that they have cost you virtually nothing.

POST SCRIPT

For further gardening news and advice, listen to Ask About Gardening with Brigid Press and Paul Anderson, every Sunday on BBC Radio Cleveland, 95FM, from 12-2pm. Send in your questions to be answered in The Northern Echo to Brigid at brigidpress67.freeserve.co.uk or write to her c/o Nature's World, Ladgate Lane, Acklam, Middlesbrough.

Published: 12/04/2003