There’s someone in my house who drinks a great deal of caffeine. During the week, that someone likes to drink instant coffee or mash his teabag in the mug before dashing off to work, but at the weekends, he enjoys filter coffee, strong and rich and fragrant. I like to pretend I am terribly virtuous by avoiding all caffeine, but I am grateful for Toby’s addiction as it provides me with a good kickstart for the compost heap.

You see, coffee grounds are nice and high in nitrogen, and as such perk the compost up and encourage the heap to get a move on and rot down into lovely rich soil. In fact, I’m so keen on a twice-yearly application of coffee grounds to the heap that I visit my local Costa every six months, where the smiling baristas hand me an enormous bin liner of the day’s spent grounds for free. They think I am completely mad, often trotting in on my way home from work in skirt and stilettos to pick up their waste, but it makes me terribly happy to re-use something in a way that makes such a difference to my garden.

I also spread these on my beds once a year, especially around the plants that like a bit of acidity such as roses. There’s a dual purpose to this: the grounds feed the plants, but they also deter my cat from using the veg patch as a toilet, as felines hate the smell of coffee.

Oh, and if you think I am holier-than-thou for refusing to drink caffeine, you should see me when I get too close to a bar of dark chocolate…