Helen Dillon with her favourite secateurs!

If there is only one gardener in the house peace will reign. With two, fights are bound to break out. Having surveyed squabbles I can report that the most common cause is missing secateurs. It goes like this: one of the parties goes out to the garden. Despite three resident pairs of secateurs, there is none to be found. Searches take place in the potting shed, the kitchen drawer, the greenhouse, the bag of weeds awaiting composting. The bag of weeds is turned out. No secateurs. Irritation grows. A grumpy walk around the garden reveals nothing. Range mounts. Then shining from under a bush, a pair of bright red handles. Thoughts of divorce recede. Tranquillity returns.

Before I discovered Felco secateurs (they of the bright red handles) I didn't care whether secateurs got lost. They were always falling to bits or losing their cutting power, and the older they got the more they crushed flower stems, rather than cutting them clean. Felco secateurs are all priced at over €30, but are worth every penny. I even lost a pair of Felco secateurs in the compost heap. A sorry sight, when they emerged a year later, but after a quick wash and some oil they were as good as new.

The second most common argument about the garden concerns trowels: there are several trowels in this garden but only one I want to use: the stainless steel one (I think it is Wilkinson Sword). The wood to the handle feels like silk and at no stage during use do you get that sinking wobbly feeling that the joint between the handle and the blade is going to bend. You may well manage with a different trowel, but for me there is none other. In this case the row ensues because it is in use when I want it.

Watering cans can be another source of friction. There is something about the balance of a watering can that can only be explained by handling one. Like a teapot, there is a wide variation on how they pour. From good watering cans, such as Haws, the water comes out in a smooth stream, and lands precisely where you want it. Other watering cans are just as likely to deposit it on your foot. Or, with an unpleasant glug, they splash the foliage of nearby plants (in winter, under glass, this is a free invitation to botrytis fungus). And the roses (sprayers on the end of the spout) seem to have only two methods of releasing water, with nothing between a sullen trickle and Niagara Falls. Haws watering cans give an even spray, such as to remind seedlings of gentle rain.

From On Gardening, Copyright © Helen Dillon 1993