About our plant food
What is natural plant food?
Grown, not manufactured: what that means in practice, where ours comes from, and how it differs from a synthetic feed.
- Made atLinstock, Cumbria
- FeedstockPlant and crop material only
- AlsoPeat-free
Where it comes from
One farm, one loop. This is the short version of what happens at Linstock.
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Step 1
Crops
The farm grows the crops that feed its anaerobic digestion plant. Plant and crop material only.
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Step 2
Digestion
The plant material is broken down without oxygen. That is all "anaerobic" means.
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Step 3
Energy
That process generates renewable energy on the farm site.
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Step 4
Plant food
What is left is a nutrient-rich material. We turn it into liquid plant food and soil improver.
How that differs from a synthetic feed
Most synthetic fertilisers are made by industrial processes that refine minerals or make nutrient compounds directly. That is efficient, but it starts from a different place. A natural feed like ours starts as what a farm process leaves behind, and is made into something plants can use.
Gardeners often choose feeds that come from living things because they can support the soil as well as feeding the plant. That is a widely discussed general distinction in gardening, not a claim about how our products perform. The everyday comparison, and why plant food and fertiliser mean the same thing, is in plant food vs fertiliser.
What the words on our labels mean
There is no official meaning of "natural" on garden products, so here is exactly what we mean.
- Natural
- Made from what a real farm process leaves behind, not synthesised from raw chemical inputs.
- Peat-free
- Made without peat. Harvesting peat damages peat bogs, a valuable habitat and carbon store.
- Free from synthetic chemicals
- No synthetic chemicals are added.
- Anaerobic digestion
- Breaking material down without oxygen in a sealed tank. It produces gas for renewable energy and leaves a nutrient-rich material behind.
- Liquid plant food
- A feed you mix in water or apply by pump, for plants that are growing: Tend, Bloom, Beanstalk and Green.
- Soil improver
- Something worked into soil before planting to improve its structure. Ours is a peat-free pouch, not a plant food.
Questions people ask
Is natural plant food the same as organic?
"Organic" is a regulated certification with its own standards. We describe our products as natural because of how they are made, not as a claim of formal organic certification.
Where is it made?
On our family farm at Linstock, near Carlisle in Cumbria, from our own farm's anaerobic digestion process.
Does natural plant food work as well as synthetic fertiliser?
They work differently, so "as well as" is not quite the right question. We do not have side-by-side trial results to share, so we will not claim one beats the other. What we can say is where ours comes from and how to use it, and the directions are on each product page.
What should I know about pets and children?
Keep the feeds where children and pets cannot get at them, and follow the safety notes on the label. The label is the place to check for anything specific.
