Tool Box will feature a new gardening gadget each week.

High-powered wash

PLAYING with water during the recent monsoon did nothing to dilute my reputation for eccentricity. But the scoffers were impressed when they saw how the area around our modest swimming pool had been transformed by the electrically powered Bosch AHR 800 high-pressure cleaner.

The powerful jet of water had no difficulty blasting a decade's ingrained dirt from the stone slabs. Only seconds were needed to remove the thin crust of green stuff that gathers on metal garden furniture. Cleaning the car was another task for this versatile, compact, very solid machine.

Getting it to work properly was the problem. We live on top of a hill, where the water pressure is too feeble to keep the pump fully primed. Tapping water from our well, which has its own pump, did the trick. The jet was then powerful enough (1,120 psi) to endorse Bosch's advice about wearing eye protection.

'Would it make more sense to hire one for pounds 15 to pounds 25 a day?' is the obvious question - the Bosch AHR 800 is listed at pounds 297.