If you really cannot bear to sully your shiny new mower, use a UV pen instead. At the other extreme, customising all your gear with a coat of bright pink paint will make it immediately recognisable.Make sure sheds, gates and garages have sturdy locks or padlocks. Bulldog manufactures an excellent range that includes a sliding bolt with an integral locking mechanism. Internal hinges (and, if possible, locks) that are concealed when the door is closed are more tamper-proof than exterior- mounted fittings. Inside the shed you could increase security by using a wall anchor - in essence a chain which is threaded through equipment and then locked on to the wall. The Metro Stoplock wall anchor is a particularly robust example.Outside, stone urns, large pots and statues that stay in one spot are best concreted or bolted into place to prevent them wandering off.

This makes items much harder to sell on and thus less attractive to steal. There is no more effective barrier, for people just as for livestock, than a dense, thorny hedge. Hawthorn, berberis and pyracantha all do a sterling job, being viciously armed and ornamental to boot. If there is no room for a hedge, any fence or wall can be made harder to scale by topping it with two or three feet of wooden trellis.Paint, indelible pen or engraving can all be used to mark equipment with your name and postcode.

A compromise is to make it as difficult as possible to get into the garden, but have boundaries and outbuildings visible from the house. The screening that provides privacy can also be the cover that the intruder needs to effect an entry. First off, put tools away as soon as they are finished with, and keep gates and sheds locked. When it comes to securing boundaries, there is something of a conflict. Aluminium garden furniture designed by Jorge Pensi is available from Coexistence, 288 Upper Street, London N1 2TZ (0171-354 8817). Timber decking and other specialist garden joinery by Lloyd Christie, 1 New King's Road, London SW6 4SB (0171-731 3484).. A person, or persons, unknown has just reduced my allotment shed to a remarkably small heap of ashes.