HAMPSHIRE, UK. September 23rd, 2026 – Garden influencer and no-dig advocate Charles Dowding has been named the winner for Quarter 3 of the UK Compost Championship.
Charles, who is known as the ‘no dig’ gardener, took the latest round of a competition designed to identify and celebrate some of the most biologically active and nutrient-rich compost being produced in Britain.
The Compost Championship, organised by the Soil Ecology Laboratory, is running across four seasonal rounds over 12 months, with participants submitting compost samples for independent laboratory analysis of their biology and nutrient profile. A winner is selected in each quarter before the overall UK Compost Champion is crowned at the end of the year.
Charles Dowding, whose work has helped popularise no-dig gardening among growers and home gardeners, has spent decades demonstrating the importance of healthy soil and organic matter. He established an organic no-dig market garden in Somerset in the 1980s and has since written several books about soil, compost and growing without digging.
Commenting on his Quarter 3 victory, Charles Dowding said: “I enjoyed participating in the Compost Championship. It’s a wonderful way of gaining insights to the quality of my compost, and learning how it compares with others that people are making. The Soil Ecology Lab is doing a fantastic job in promoting this.”
The championship aims to shift attention away from compost simply as a source of organic matter and towards increasing the quantity of the living biology that can make it valuable to soil and plants.The competition gives participants access to laboratory analysis that allows them to compare the biological and nutritional characteristics of their compost.
According to the Soil Ecology Laboratory, healthy compost can provide fertility, support soil life and offer an alternative to peat.
Daniel Tyrkiel, founder of Soil Ecology Laboratory, said the result demonstrated the growing interest in understanding compost at a deeper level.
“Charles has been talking about the importance of compost for many years, so it is particularly fitting to see his work recognised in a competition that looks beyond what compost looks like and asks what is actually happening biologically within it.
“We have been thrilled by the level of interest and participation since we set up the competition in 2025. The quality of compost matters, and we want the championship to encourage more people to understand, measure and improve it.”
The Soil Ecology Laboratory has made compost biology an important part of its wider work to help farmers, growers and gardeners understand and improve the health of their soils. The company supplies the world’s first and only living soil food web inoculant which can be shipped and stored, helping restore key functions in soils.
The laboratory provides soil and compost testing, including Soil Food Web microscopy, nutritional analysis and functional DNA analysis. Its testing is designed to help identify the organisms present in soil and compost and understand whether the biological community is providing the functions needed for healthy plant growth.
Its Compost Championship is intended to bring that approach to a much wider audience by giving compost makers comparable data about their material while creating a community around the practical science of composting.
Daniel Tyrkiel added: “Britain has an enormous amount of organic material that can be turned into something valuable for our soils, but not all compost is equal and there is a lot of poor quality compost being sold across the UK.
“Our aim is to help people understand the difference and give them the tools to make better compost, whether they are managing a small garden, allotment, market garden or a farmer running a commercial growing operation.”
With three quarters of the competition completed, attention will now turn to the final round and the search for the overall UK Compost Champion.
Daniel said: “The ultimate aim is not simply to crown a winner, but to help raise the standard of compost being made and used across the UK by putting its biological quality under greater scrutiny.”
For more information about the UK Compost Championship and how to enter, visit soilsmiths.co.uk/compost-championship.
ENDS