Build Your Own Living Soil From the Ground Up
Take the guesswork out of building your own living soil with the Base Soil Starter Kit — a convenient bundle containing the three core ingredients used to create a balanced base soil mix: peat moss, nutrient-rich compost and coarse perlite.
Designed around the foundational soil-building recipe featured in our How to Build Your Own Living Soil guide, this kit gives you approximately 77 litres of quality growing media ingredients ready to mix into a versatile base for your next living soil project.
Rather than buying each component separately, you get the essential ingredients together in one simple bundle.
Whether you're starting your first DIY living soil, creating a custom organic potting mix or building a reusable soil system, this kit gives you the foundation to get started.
What's Included?
25L Peat Moss
A lightweight, fibrous growing media ingredient that forms the moisture-retentive component of your base mix.
Peat moss helps:
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Improve moisture retention
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Maintain good soil structure
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Create a lightweight growing medium
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Balance the high-drainage properties of the aeration component
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Provide a versatile base for custom living soil recipes
27L 4+1 Compost Blend
A biologically active compost blend combining:
The compost component provides organic matter, beneficial soil biology and nutrients while helping establish the biological foundation of your living soil.
25L Coarse P500 Perlite
A lightweight mineral aeration component used to improve drainage and maintain air spaces throughout the soil.
Coarse perlite helps:
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Improve root-zone aeration
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Increase drainage
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Reduce soil compaction
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Maintain pore space within the growing medium
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Balance the water-holding capacity of peat and compost
The Three Foundations of a Quality Base Soil
A well-balanced living soil needs more than nutrients alone.
The Base Soil Starter Kit combines three components that perform three different but complementary jobs.
Moisture & Structure – Peat Moss
Provides the lightweight, moisture-retentive backbone of the mix.
Biology & Organic Matter – Compost
Introduces organic matter, nutrients, minerals and beneficial soil biology.
Aeration & Drainage – Coarse Perlite
Creates pore space throughout the mix, helping oxygen reach the root zone while excess water drains away.
Together, these ingredients create a balanced foundation that can then be customised with additional organic amendments depending on your plants and growing style.
Based on Our DIY Living Soil Recipe
Customers regularly use our How to Build Your Own Living Soil guide when creating their own soil mixes.
One of the foundational recipes covered in the guide uses approximately equal parts:
1 Part Peat Moss
1 Part Compost
1 Part Aeration
The Base Soil Starter Kit brings these three essential ingredients together so you can spend less time sourcing individual components and more time building your soil.
The full kit contains:
25L Peat Moss + 27L 4+1 Compost Blend + 25L Coarse Perlite = Approximately 77L of ingredients
How to Use
Empty the peat moss, compost and coarse perlite into a suitable mixing area or large container.
Thoroughly combine the ingredients until the compost and perlite are evenly distributed throughout the peat.
Once mixed, you have a versatile base soil that can be used as the foundation for a more complete living soil recipe.
From here, additional dry amendments or soil-building ingredients can be added according to the nutritional requirements of the plants you're growing.
For a complete walkthrough, refer to our How to Build Your Own Living Soil guide.
Why Build Your Own Living Soil?
Creating your own soil gives you greater control over what goes into your growing medium.
Instead of relying entirely on a pre-made potting mix, you can create a soil foundation and customise its nutrition, biology and physical properties around your plants and growing environment.
A quality DIY living soil mix can help you:
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Build a biologically active root environment
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Maintain better soil aeration and drainage
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Improve moisture management
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Add organic matter to your growing medium
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Customise nutrition with your preferred amendments
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Develop a reusable soil system over multiple growing cycles
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Better understand exactly what goes into your soil
Why Choose the Base Soil Starter Kit?
Everything in One Bundle
Get the three primary base soil components together instead of sourcing them individually.
Built Around a Proven Soil-Building Formula
The ingredients correspond with the foundational peat, compost and aeration recipe used in our DIY living soil guide.
Biologically Active Compost
Our 4+1 Compost Blend combines multiple compost sources with insect frass and rock minerals to help establish a biologically rich soil environment.
Coarse Aeration Component
P500 coarse perlite helps maintain air spaces and drainage throughout your growing medium.
Customisable Foundation
Start with the base, then tailor your soil with additional organic amendments according to what you're growing.
Ideal for DIY Soil Builders
A straightforward starting point for gardeners who want to move beyond pre-made potting mixes and start building their own soil.
Great For
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DIY living soil
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Organic gardening
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Custom potting soil recipes
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Raised garden beds
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Container gardening
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Vegetable gardens
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Indoor and outdoor growing
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Soil building projects
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Reusable soil systems
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Gardeners following our living soil guide
Frequently Asked Questions
How much material is included in the Base Soil Starter Kit?
The bundle contains 25L of peat moss, 27L of 4+1 Compost Blend and 25L of coarse P500 perlite, giving you approximately 77L of ingredients before mixing and settling.
Is this a complete living soil?
This kit provides the base components used to build living soil. It creates the physical and biological foundation of the mix. Depending on what you're growing, you may choose to add additional nutritional amendments to create your preferred complete living soil recipe.
Why do I need perlite in living soil?
Coarse perlite creates air spaces within the growing medium. This improves aeration and drainage and helps prevent the peat and compost components from becoming excessively compacted.
What does the compost add to the mix?
The included 4+1 Compost Blend supplies organic matter and soil biology along with cow manure, chicken manure, mushroom compost, insect frass and a rock mineral blend containing more than 25 trace elements.
Why is peat moss used?
Peat moss provides a lightweight, fibrous base with excellent moisture-holding properties. When combined with compost and an aeration component such as perlite, it helps create a balanced growing medium.
Do I need to add fertiliser or amendments?
That depends on the plants you're growing and how you intend to use the soil. The Base Soil Starter Kit is designed as the foundation of your DIY living soil. Additional amendments can be incorporated according to your preferred living soil recipe and the nutritional requirements of your plants.
Can I follow your living soil guide with this kit?
Yes. This bundle was specifically put together around the core base-soil ingredients recommended in our How to Build Your Own Living Soil guide, making it an easy starting point for customers following the recipe.
Can the soil be reused?
Living soil systems are commonly maintained and reused between growing cycles. Rather than replacing the entire growing medium, established soil can often be refreshed with compost, organic matter and appropriate amendments as required.
Start Building Better Soil
Great living soil starts with the right foundation.
The Base Soil Starter Kit brings together peat moss for moisture and structure, biologically active compost for organic matter and soil life, and coarse perlite for aeration and drainage — giving you the essential ingredients needed to start building your own living soil at home.
Build the base. Add your amendments. Grow your soil.
