LAZY DAYS

Alice Vincent has had a hectic 2023, but for next year she's come up with a cunning plan to give herself more time and reduce her carbon footprint

- Alice Vincent

What's your relationship with your compost bin been like this year? I'm not sure I'd come off well with mine. A soggy summer meant I was reluctant to feed it too many anaerobic grass cuttings (when I did eventually mow the lawn in July, three months after it was laid) and it's had more dedicated years of fastidiously combining browns (cardboard, loo roll tubes, envelopes, twigs and dry leaves) with greens (food waste, aforementioned grass cuttings, green plant matter). If I were on the therapist's couch I suspect I'd be called out for taking more than I gave.

I don't entirely regret this. This year has been one of garden transformation, and about five months in I was able to sit back, witness the growth of it all and think that, all things considered, it wasn't a bad achievement for a year in which I'd also given birth to a baby. In perfectionist terms, this is high praise indeed. Still, as we near the end of the year I'm prone to reflection, and I suppose I'm resolving to be more conscious in my composting next year.