Gardening: Spend, spend, spend

GARDENS ARE for sitting in as well as working at - though wherever I sit, I always see something that needs doing, so the sitting is short lived. Junk shops are a useful hunting ground for garden chairs. An old wooden (or Lloyd Loom) chair, a can of spray paint, and you can provide garden seating for less than pounds 10 a throw.

At the other end of the range is Kenneth Turner's sea grass chair, which doesn't mind being left out in the rain. It's low and rounded, pleasantly squidgy and costs pounds 295. For details, call 0171-355 3880. Furniture maker Bill Brown makes tables and tents as well as garden chairs. His folding cruise chair, modelled on one that he saw in Belize, is made of ash and costs pounds 195. Contact him at 2, Garden Cottages, Highden, Washington, West Sussex RH20 4BA (01903 877373).

The phrase "packed flat" rings warning bells for me, but if you are safe in charge of a screwdriver, a Louisiana rocking chair kit can be yours for pounds 119. The chair is high-backed and made from honey-coloured Balu wood, but you'll need to treat it with preservative if it is left outside all year. Call the Cotswold Company on 0990 502233.