The Occasional Gardener: Could a compost bin upset your spiritual balance? Is a pointy picket fence good or bad? Paul Norton gives a garden the feng shui once-over, writes Sarah Marriott

I'm worried because my compost bin is in the exact centre of my garden. I've recently heard that - in the world of feng shui - the centre controls your general health, so I was a bit concerned that rotting food in my "health area" might mean I was about to drop dead from too much yin or yang.

Don't panic, advised feng shui expert Paul Norton. "Although good feng shui in your garden is helpful, the most important area is where you spend the most time - which is in the house, not the garden."

But that didn't stop me spending a couple of hours googling "feng shui garden" and then another few hours trying to apply it to my own patch. It's not that I'm entirely convinced by feng shui - but can millions of Chinese be completely deluded?

The first thing you need is a compass, as the "bagua", the ancient Chinese grid, depends on north and south. My stone cottage faces south, which is the area of opportunity, dreams and happiness.

The element to use here is fire apparently; I don't fancy a barbecue in my little front garden but maybe some fire-coloured plants would do the trick?

The good news is that the optimum shapes are pointed and triangular - and my blue picket fence has pointed tops. My feng shui for the west is also mixed: the courtyard here is designed for socialising, which is good, but having a barbecue in the area for harvest, creativity and entertaining is supposed to be bad.

It's a bit disconcerting to realise that if a feng shui expert had analysed my garden before I touched it (and if I had taken any notice), almost everything would now be different. One of the problems with feng shui is that it can conflict with practical considerations.

In a house, for example, the front and back doors often face each other and there's not much you can do about it (except add some plants to deflect energy).

In a garden, it's the position of light and water which influences most of your decisions, not whether a Chinese philosophy says the north-east is the area for knowledge and meditation and that you shouldn't put plants there.

I grow vegetables in a polytunnel in the north-east because it gets the sun all day during the summer - but I do find sitting there in the early morning a very relaxing, almost spiritual experience. The east is important for nutrition, healing and growth and luckily, that's the site of my new vegetable and fruit plot.

If a feng shui consultant analyses your garden, they will usually dowse - to look for geopathic stress (from the Greek geo for earth and pathos for disease). These are natural phenomena, such as ley lines or underground streams, which may cause problems in our lives and in our homes.

When Paul Norton gave my house the feng shui once-over, he took a quick look at the garden and then did the dowsing on the plan after he returned to Co Clare.

Although he was happy with the garden's regular shape, he recommended that I try to buy a couple of extra bits of land in order to enhance my finances.

Paul also advised me to plant boundary hedges of native species, which has been on my to-do list for four years, and to remove a sycamore tree near the back of the house - which I'm reluctant to do in case its roots are holding up the house.

Feng shui strikes me as a little like astrology, where you believe the good bits and don't worry too much about the bad stuff - but I'm relieved to learn that a compost bin at the heart of the garden is no bad thing. Phew.

Paul Norton, Glendree Lower, Feakle, Co Clare. Tel 061-924945. paul@norton-associates.co.uk