Black gold

Very little gives me greater pleasure than the fine black compost here in my hand. After a long summer of putting kilos of fruit peelings, along with the leaves of autumn and the odd shovel full of manure from the chickens, it all breaks down to this.

It's free, super-efficacious and feeds the vegetable plot like nothing else. The real magic is carried out by an army of scarab beetle grubs who chomp away to their hearts' delight. When there are too many grubs I throw them to the hens who leap and swivel like dervishes to catch them.

Long live compost.