The evidence: The gardener's portable office

Paul Thompson designs gardens both in Britain and abroad. He has also presented Garden Doctors for Channel 4

"As far as I'm concerned my Blundstone's (1) are the ultimate boot. They've even survived being caked in mud for three months as I couldn't face cleaning them. I always carry books with me - a Japanese one (2) as I was discussing an Oriental garden yesterday, Hillier's (3), which is sort of the gardener's bible and a book about Indo-Pacific diving (4), one of my passions. For me designing a garden is intuitive, I do lots of drawings (5) and artist's impressions. I can usually visualise what I'm going to do, but sometimes you need photos to remind you, so I always carry a camera (6). I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to computers. My laptop (7) is incredibly useful though. It has a brilliant program on it called `Perfect Plants' which allows you to show clients exactly what certain plants look like. Felco secateurs (8) are the samurai sword of gardening. I really felt I'd arrived when I got my first pair. I found this old tape measure (9) in a market. If it's become a little inaccurate over time, I don't mind. My dog Donald [too active to be pictured] comes everywhere with me. He does, however, have this incredible knack of lying across the only access area in a garden just when you need it. `Donald get out of the way' has become a bit of a mantra."

Interview by Aoife O'Riordain

Photograph by Dominick Tyler