| A Future Adventure At Earthly Comforts, we’re building the Soil Builder’s Hub Club piece by piece. Compost bins, worm farms, leaf kraals, and mulch bays will all form the backbone of the Hub in its first phase. Construction will take approximately 6–12 months, with the systems maturing fully into a circular soil system over a period of about two years. So what comes next after this initial two-year period? Once the Hub is well established, we’ll be ready to explore one of the most exciting soil innovations: biochar. |
| What is Biochar? Biochar is a stable form of charcoal made by heating woody material (like branches and prunings) in a low-oxygen environment. Unlike ordinary compost or mulch, it doesn’t break down quickly — it locks carbon into the soil for hundreds of years. |
| Why Biochar Matters Adding biochar to soil has remarkable benefits: Climate action – it permanently stores carbon that would otherwise be released back into the atmosphere. Nutrient sponge – biochar holds nutrients and water like a reservoir, releasing them slowly to plants. Microbial home – its porous structure gives beneficial fungi and microbes places to thrive. Reduced leaching – it helps stop nutrients from being washed away by heavy rain. |
| How It Could Fit Into the Hub The Hub already gives us the ingredients: Woody prunings → shredder → biochar kiln → finished biochar. Biochar would then be blended with compost, worm castings, and leaf mould, creating a powerful, balanced soil builder. But implementing biochar will be a future phase, planned for after the first two years. For now, we’re focusing on the foundation: ensuring our compost, worm, leaf, and mulch systems operate to their full potential first. |
| Looking Ahead Biochar represents the next frontier for the Soil Builder’s Hub. Once we’ve completed two years of successful operations and have proven the closed-loop system works, we’ll be ready to introduce this technique, adding another layer for reusing, recycling, and regenerating. |
| For now, think of biochar as the “bonus chapter” in our unfolding story—a key part of our larger vision that we are actively working toward. |
Earthly Comforts 
This seems like a huge project to take on…
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Morning Grace, It is a big project, huge in fact that will take nearly a year to develop properly, but l think it will be worth it. For the first year l will make a remarkable saving – especially given how much waste disposal has risen in the last 12 months. What began as a £1.25 per 125L bag of green waste taken away has risen to £4.00 per 125L bag. I need to reduce that fast without interupting my client flow too much. So yes, the Hub is a big project, but worth it in the end 🙂
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