Apsley Farms produces a range of sustainable gardening products that are by-products of green energy production at the Farm.
Our products are produced onsite and are derived from rye, barley, grass and maize. These crops are fed into our biodigester, where anaerobic bacteria turns them into sustainable biogas and a semi-solid digestate. It’s the same type of natural fermentation process that takes place inside cows, except we capture and use all of the products.
You can learn more about the production process on our biomethane production page.
Apsley Farms’ Mulch is a high-quality fibrous material that suppresses weeds, adds nutrients, aids water retention, and deters slugs and snails when fresh. It is certified for organic use by the Soil Association, and offers a waste-free, peat-free way of improving soil.
In independently conducted tests, Apsley Farms Mulch produced higher plant yield compared to a competitor product. A mixture of 20-30% of our mulch with 70-80% soil increased plant yield by 30%
Apsley Farms Digestate is used on our own crops, by our partner farms, and is available direct to consumers. Learn more about our mulch.
“Wonderful stuff! Saved me hours of weeding this summer and seemed to stop everything drying out in hot weather. I will be buying it again!”
Our natural plant food is the companion product to our mulch, produced by the same sustainable processes, and is also certified by the Soil Association. It can be used in combination with our mulch or as a stand- alone product to increase:
- vegetative growth
- flower production and longevity
- size and yield or fruits and vegetables
- stimulate root and improve overall plant health.
Used in the correct dilutions, our plant feed provides the full suite of micronutrients and microbes.
The plant feed has been used successfully on our own farm, by our partner farms, and by a range of other growers for varied applications. In our summer trials, it was even found to produce double the fruits and flowers when compared to unfed plants!
“both our flower and veg beds and have seen great results! The flowers and vegetables have grown really well with the nutrients”
Sustainability of our products
By-products of green biogas and green electricity production
Born out of the process of making green energy, our digestate is also a fortuitous by-product. It is separated to make our soil improving Mulch and Natural Plant Food and essentially re-used to fertiliser farmland, and recycled when sold directly for horticultural use.
Peat-free
35% of British compost still comes from peat, a carbon sink that’s essential for reducing greenhouse gases, which is why peat-based compost will be banned from 2024. Produced from grass, barley and other crops, our plant improvers are 100% peat-free.
Low carbon Production
Chemical fertilisers are produced using high temperatures and pressures, consuming vast amounts of energy. simultaneously producing large quantities of CO2. By contrast, our anaerobic digesters work at just over bath water temperatures, minimising energy inputs, but our natural fertiliser products are essentially by-products drastically reducing their carbon footprint.
We power our own operations
The comparatively little energy we do use in producing our soil improvers and fertilisers is powered by our own facility, and we have our sights on approaching Net Zero. We do this using some of the biogas we produce as a heat source, or used to generate our own electricity.