Steading & Co at COMPOSTED: A Festival of Biodegradable Ideas
- Alex Goemans
- Jun 7
- 4 min read
31 May – 26 July 2025 | Cambo Gardens, Fife
This summer, we’re thrilled to be part of something truly special alongside Michael Kennard from Compost Club. Cambo Gardens has launched COMPOSTED – a Festival of Biodegradable Ideas. Taking place from 31 May to 26 July, the festival connects gardeners, scientists, environmentalists, and the wider local community in celebration of the life in compost.
From the Garden: A word from Cal Halstead, Head Gardener & COMPOSTED champion
I’m delighted to be able to invite you to our first ever Compost Conference. Since its inception, a principal aim of COMPOSTED was to bring inspirational speakers from the fields of sustainability, community composting and regenerative agriculture to present and share their insights with others.
When we first started thinking about sharing our composting methods with visitors, we felt that it was important to first build a clearer picture of how well our composting systems work. Is our compost good? Are we supporting the right kind of soil biology? What could we improve on? To help find answers to these questions, we turned to Steading & Co. Understanding soil ecosystems is just one arm of their fascinating multi-disciplinary regenerative farming business, but this is what they have helped us to do. Through analysing our compost and no-dig garden soils, they have helped us to understand that nurturing soil biology is key to maximising healthy plant growth, building resilience to pests and diseases, and growing more nutritionally dense food. It was a great relief to hear that our composting was already yielding good results, however with Steading & Co.’s expert help, we have managed to improve our methods and compost recipes further to nourish our garden soils and give the plants what they really want. We are super excited to learn more about the life that our soils support and why this is important, as they share their story and put our compost under the microscope.
Our relationship with Michael Kennard and his pioneering business Compost Club goes back a bit further. The generosity and passion with which he communicates his knowledge and ideas through his social media platforms has been extremely engaging, and through following his advice, we have massively improved our composting techniques over the past three years. We couldn’t think of anyone else who would be a more natural fit for our conference event. Michael’s enthusiasm for his subject is infectious and inspiring, and his projects – Compost Club, Biolife Compost & Regenerative Soils, offer countless practical ideas that can be implemented in gardens of all sizes and will promote “Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants & Healthy Humans”. You can watch Michael’s free Hot Composting Masterclass here: https://michael-kennard.mykajabi.com/masterclass
COMPOSTED is about more than just creating good compost. It’s about how we as a garden treat the land that we are responsible for. It’s about how we use garden materials more sustainably to create vital habitat and boost our local biodiversity. It’s also about collecting and sharing new ideas- we are very much at the beginning of our journey with composting and we certainly haven’t tried everything. Through communicating with fascinating speakers and connecting with local community gardening groups, we hope to learn new skills, expand our thinking and to share our experiences so that we and others can begin to garden in ways that meet 21st century environmental challenges head on.
COMPOSTED Conference at Cambo Gardens
Saturday 21 June 2025 | 11am–9pm
A day amongst the compost! Celebrate regenerative practices with a range of insightful speakers culminating with some live music and home grown treats to enjoy the beautiful grounds on midsummer’s evening.
Schedule:
11:00am – Coffee & Introductions
11:15am – 1:15pm – COMPOSTED Walk & Talk with Cal Halstead and Seb Chaloner
1:30pm – Lunch
2:30pm – Steading & Co Presentation + Chat
3:30pm – Michael Kennard (Compost Club) Presentation + Chat
4:30pm – Open-air Q&A at the heap
6:00pm – Summer Solstice Social: live music, drinks, and homegrown delights
9:00pm – Close
🎟️ Tickets: £45 (includes catering, evening social, and a linked entry to the Garden Futures exhibition at V&A Dundee) 👉
Spotlight on No Dig Gardening
Saturday 14 June | 11am | Cambo Gardens
Curious about the No Dig method? Join Katherine Taylor, who’s been developing Cambo’s No Dig Edible Garden using principles championed by Charles Dowding. This is a great chance to get hands-on, ask questions, and learn how to build healthy, living soil through low-disturbance practices.
Spaces are limited – early booking recommended.👉
Upcoming
Daily from 10am: Biodiversity Trail to the Compost Studio. Pick up a COMPOSTED map and follow the trail to discover the hidden life in the soil.
Sat 7 June from 11am: Build a Compost Cake. Join in and help create Cambo’s next big compost pile!
Sat 14 June: No Dig Gardening. Bookable session with Katherine Taylor at 11am.
Sat 21 June: COMPOSTED Conference. Main event! Book now to avoid missing out.
Why This Matters
Cambo's Composted project has grown from interest from a volunteer into a festival programme - a way Cambo Gardens hopes to be a place where people and plants can grow through opportunities for development. Well done Seb for enthusing Callum into developing this project!
We at Steading & Co are honoured to contribute to this movement and invite you to be part of it too.
Why not join one of Cambo Gardens groups or projects and see what we can develop next!
🌱 Join us at COMPOSTED – Let’s build better soil, together.
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