Waste not – want not

At the Secret Garden we’ve always made our own compost, and since 2014 we have been looking into buying a rocket composter to set up a community composting scheme. In 2020 we set up a small-scale trial, using wormeries made from reclaimed car tyres to process kitchen leftovers, dropped off by people living near our gardens. However, in autumn 2020 we received a surprise phone call that would help make our six-year dream a reality. We were to be donated a rocket composter, capable of processing 700 litres of food waste per week!

Since receiving the news, we have been working closely with the Sovereign shopping centre in Boscombe to get the rocket set up. We now have a superb site on the roof of the shopping centre, and in early November we safely received the rocket into storage. Now we are working out the logistics and fundraising for the rest of the infrastructure. If all goes to plan, early next year we hope to start using the rocket to process food leftovers from Boscombe’s market, cafes and local families.

If this is a success we are dreaming of scaling up and rolling out similar schemes across Boscombe and the BCP Council area. Revolutionary acts in every neighbourhood, closing the loop on food waste and loss of life in our soil, demonstrating that we can address the world’s biggest problems in our smallest urban communities.

Get involved

Interested in getting involved in our Community Composting project? Get in touch today!

Why is composting important?

Making your own compost is a revolutionary act. It’s one of the simplest and most effective things we can do to address many of the issues we are facing as a planet – climate chaos, food waste, the health crisis, and the global loss of biodiversity and living top soil. What’s more, it is symbolic of the circular food system that we are trying to create.

Instead of food leftovers being driven several miles away to be buried in landfill, your kitchen scraps can be turned into a rich plant food, teeming with soil nutrients and microorganisms. By spreading this compost in our gardens we are returning lost fertility to the earth, creating healthy, living soil. This will in turn produce strong, nutritious food and a rich wildlife habitat.

What’s a rocket composter?

A rocket composter is a large enclosed vessel that creates compost much more quickly than traditional garden techniques. It does this by creating the perfect conditions for aerobic bacteria to break down organic matter – a stable, warm temperature, good airflow and a periodic turning of the contents.