SOIL!A weekend workshop on Soil Life, Compost, Organic Matter and Natural Fertilisers to make your garden grow

27th October 2025

Here at Asthall Manor at the start of October, we experienced a weekend voyage, deep into the living soil beneath our feet, investigating all that lives there and the composts that best feed it for our food-growing needs.

A good understanding of soil health and composts is the foundation to growing healthy, nutritious (aka tasty) food. Healthy soil means healthy plants, means healthy people.

In this immersive two-day workshop our guests studied the basics of soil science and the life that supports it. Some brought their own soil sample, and learned how to identify its type, characteristics and needs whilst learning the basics of different composting systems and other sources of healthy organic matter, alongside a bit of helpful theory.

On rare occasions, our plants need a little helping hand, so they also learned how to make effective and wildlife-friendly plant-based fertilisers, for free!

“Feed the soil, not the plant” has gone from being a maxim of Organic food growing to a keystone of all progressive agricultural practice. We now know that soil biology is far healthier and more sustainable than synthetic soil chemistry. And with the rising social, environmental and economic costs of fertilisers and pesticides, we need to befriend soil life more than ever. Feeding the soil begins with good soil management and making great compost! It’s also a great way to make best use of your organic waste materials, recycling valuable nutrients while absorbing carbon and minimising our impact on council waste systems and the environment alike.

The web of soil biology extends from deep in the ground, through your composting systems and into the air, sustaining many creatures who not only keep pests in check but maintain a healthy, balanced soil ecology in a way that no synthetic pesticide or fertiliser could ever match. Good soil management is also a great way to absorb carbon and increase biodiversity.

Did you know that a quarter of all life on Earth is in the soil?!

We’re all part of the soil community and if we think we’re not, then we’re probably a pest.