Now here's one for Monty, don of all gardeners. And one for you if you're the kind of person who can't even look after a plant on your window sill/desk/common room. The secret, of course, is all down to tender loving care, a bit of silver-tongued chat (just ask Prince Charles), regular watering... and a high-performance PC.

Yes, we said a high performance PC. You see, the computer age has impacted many aspects of our lives, yet it's only now that the benefits are trickling down and being felt in the little-understood field of office-based horticulture.

Introducing the USB Greenhouse, which, as the name suggests, relies on the wonders of the Universal Serial Bus to turn you into the next presenter of Gardeners' World. Invest a bit of hard-earned cash and in return get the complete office gardening kit, including a USB-powered miniature greenhouse complete with adjustable growth light, PC interface to monitor growth and well-being, marigold seeds and artificial soil. See - now even the soil's virtual.

Simply plant your seeds, sit back, watch and let the computer take the strain of the monitoring. All that's required of you is to log in on a regular basis and do whatever you're told. Easy pansy.