Turn Your Food Waste into the Best Fertiliser for Your Garden and Allotment

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Soil is everything when it comes to growing healthy, productive plants. It’s not just a medium to hold roots—it’s a living system, full of microbes, fungi, and organic matter that help plants access nutrients, store water, and fight off pests and diseases.

The best way to improve soil health? Composting at home. It’s simple, cost-effective, and means every bit of food waste stays in the loop, feeding your soil instead of going to landfill.

In our farmhouse at Lower Blakemere, composting has become second nature. There’s a worm farm in the kitchen, quietly turning veg peelings into incredibly rich worm compost, and a Bokashi Kit in the porch, fermenting kitchen waste, cooked food, dairy, and plate waste. Once it’s ready, it all goes back into the soil—either dug in directly or added to the compost heap to speed up the process and boost microbial life.

Bringing home compost to the allotment or garden improves soil structure, boosts fertility, and helps retain moisture—a game-changer for anyone growing their own food.

Why Home Compost is Better for Your Soil

Homemade compost isn’t just about recycling waste—it’s one of the best soil amendments you can get. Unlike shop-bought compost, which is often heat-treated and lacks microbial life, home compost is full of:

  • Beneficial bacteria and fungi – which help break down organic matter and make nutrients more available to plants.

  • Slow-release nutrition – plants get a steady supply of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium over time.

  • Organic matter to improve soil structure – compost helps sandy soil hold water and stops clay from compacting.

  • Earthworm food – worms love compost and will aerate your soil naturally.

A compost heap is a great way to recycle green waste, but if you want to compost ALL food waste—including cooked food—Bokashi is the answer.

Bokashi: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Compost Everything

Bokashi Organko Essential Compost Kitchen Waste Value Pack - Grey - For Business

Bokashi is a fermentation system that composts food waste efficiently, with no smells, no pests, and no waiting around. It’s perfect for those who want to:

  • Compost all food waste – including cooked food, dairy, and even small amounts of meat.

  • Make compost in a compact space – a Bokashi Kit fits neatly in the house, shed, porch, or even outside.

  • Improve composting speed – Bokashi-treated food waste breaks down in soil far quicker than fresh food scraps, meaning nutrients are available sooner.

It’s as simple as layering your food waste in the bin, sprinkling on live Bokashi bran (which we make fresh on the farm), and leaving it to ferment. After two weeks, the pre-compost can be added to soil, buried in the garden, or mixed into a compost bin to speed everything up.

Worm Composting: The Best Soil Conditioner You Can Make

For those looking to create top-quality compost, worm farming (vermicomposting) is a brilliant way to recycle kitchen scraps into something even better than traditional compost.

A worm farm works brilliantly indoors, but can also be kept in a shed or greenhouse. The worms break down food waste into nutrient-dense worm castings, which are:

  • Five times richer in nitrogen, seven times richer in phosphorus, and ten times richer in potassium than standard compost.

  • Full of beneficial microbes that support soil health.

  • Incredibly fine and water-retentive, improving plant root access to nutrients.

The liquid runoff (often called worm tea) is an added bonus—dilute it and use it as a natural liquid fertiliser - and it’s free for life!

Once a worm farm is set up it quietly converts food waste into compost with almost very little effort (they are live so do need some tending and checking.)

Why Composting is Essential for the Planet

1. Reducing Waste & Methane Emissions

A third of household waste is food, and most of it ends up in landfill, where it rots and releases methane—a greenhouse gas far worse than CO₂. Composting stops this pollution at the source.

2. Cutting Transport Emissions

Every time food waste is collected and transported, it creates unnecessary carbon emissions. Keeping food waste on-site eliminates this footprint and turns waste into a resource instead.

3. Regenerating Soil & Locking in Carbon

Healthy soil holds carbon, retains water, and supports plant life far better than degraded soil. Adding compost boosts organic matter, encourages biodiversity, and improves growing conditions.

How to Get Started

Composting doesn’t have to be complicated—there’s an option for every home and garden.

However you do it, home composting means better soil, healthier plants, and less waste.

Bokashi in the house, shed, porch, or outside. Worms in the kitchen, greenhouse, or shed. A compost bin in the garden. Turning kitchen scraps into compost is one of the most powerful things you can do for your soil and your harvest.

Become a SOIL Farmer - Compost Matters xx



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