It is a privilege indeed for Country Life to be shown the large composting area at the National Trust for Scotland’s (NTS) 54-acre garden at Inverewe on Loch Ewe in Wester Ross. ‘I don’t bring many people up here,’ says Kevin Ball, who has been head gardener since 2006.

Composting has always been important in a garden conjured from bare rock and Mr Ball and his team pride themselves on producing large volumes of high-quality material within six months. It is here that woody and herbaceous waste, seaweed gathered from the shoreline and all the bamboo cutlery and paper cups and plates from the café end up. The materials are layered like a lasagne in long windrows and monitored by a digital probe to alert the gardeners when the heap gets close to 60˚C, so it can be turned (five times), then

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