May 2026
Year after year, some of my best intentions get pushed aside by the variables inherent in gardening at 1200 metres. This year, despite a late, frigid, rainy spring, something completely different happened. I was invited to turn my resolve to start composting into a real project - provided I could put together the components of what was said to be a light-weight, portable compost bin. It was free, the gift of the municipality next to mine to anyone who wanted one. A friend who lives there had gone along to her town hall and been given two: would I like one? It was French, and EU-approved: the photo even made it look rather elegant. I needed no persuading.
It arrived as a flat-pack: four dark-green panels, a handful of long rods, a lid, a stirring device and a thermometer on a metal stake. Oh, and a small, lidded container in which to collect kitchen scraps. There was also a helpful brochure in five languages, with diagrams that even I could deconstruct. I had the bin together in half an hour, then walked it over to the unobtrusive spot I'd chosen for it - the angle formed by two walls, next to the fountain.
And there it sits, having been given its bottom layer of twigs and torn-up cardboard, then a layer of leaf-mold and grass clippings, and then, after a few days, the contents of the little kitchen bin, to which I'd dutifully consigned crushed eggshells, chopped banana peels, vegetable parings and the like. The idea is to layer regularly with 'brown' and 'green' ingredients, stir and take the interior temperature of the bin's contents every few weeks, and have patience. 'In time', says the helpful brochure (a footnote adding that this means anywhere between 6 months and a year), it will all be transformed into 'black gold': better soil than any I could buy, and more natural than most fertilisers. I generate very little kitchen waste, but even so, I like the idea of turning the little I do produce into something that benefits the garden. These are early days, but with attention and luck, 'black gold' is in the making. Watch this space.