It isn’t a big challenge to become a more sustainable gardener

It isn’t a big challenge to become a more sustainable gardener

At CoirProducts, we not only strive to ensure that our products are safe and healthy for the environment. One of our inspirations for cutting down on plastic is Sandy over at Good Roots Barns (@goodrootsbarn). In 2020, Sandy decided to turn her passion for plastic-free gardening into a business and launched Good Roots Barn!

“It was a number of things that inspired me to start Good Roots Barn. I have been practising a plastic free lifestyle for many years and having worked in horticulture, I witnessed first hand how plastic is treated as disposable. So I wanted to introduce gardeners to plastic free alternatives and also use the website as an information point to help educate too. It isn’t a big challenge to become a more sustainable gardener. We also highlight the sustainability side of growing plastic-free; coir (for example) is a by-product of the coconut industry and would go to waste if the material wasn’t made use of.

However, as we all know, plastic is still a primary material in many aspects of our lives, which is one of the challenges Sandy faced when started up her amazing shop:

“The challenges have actually come from suppliers not quite understanding that we are entirely a plastic free company, quite often orders arrive with plastic packaging or sellotape. But it’s a learning curve for us as well as them, and most have been very receptive to our suggestions for alternative packaging. We want to help gardeners and suppliers to be part of the solution, rather than the pollution”.

Taking it back before Good Roots Barn was launched, Sandy tells us all about her own gardening inspirations and experiences, and what benefits it has brought to her life. 

“I first started gardening when I moved into my first home in my mid twenties. It suddenly dawned on me that I had a lot of space to maintain and after careful consideration, I knew I wanted it to be productive as well as pretty. So I immediately started growing vegetables and herbs. The magic behind sowing a seed and germinating it was addictive and my passion grew from there. Growing my own vegetables is my passion, I adore the productivity of it and still to this day I’m astounded by what can be achieved from one packet of seed. I love my garden to be productive for me, insects, birds, worms, and in order to achieve that, you have to connect with the environment”.

Good Roots Barn offers a wide range of plastic-free products for gardeners, including grow kits, planters, wildlife products, and seeds.

You can find everything over at www.goodrootsbarn.co.uk and can find them on social media @goodrootsbarn. A number of the grow kits also feature our very own coir-based products so go ahead and check them out! Thank you to Sandy for sharing her gardening experiences, and the journey which led her to Good Roots Barn.