Why our composts are suitable for vegans

We delve deeper into our vegan composts this month and explain just what makes them perfect for vegan gardeners.


Interest in vegan gardening has sky rocketed in the last year – and with it the curiosity about our vegan range.

Many of our peat-free SylvaGrow composts are suitable for use by vegans, but exactly what allows a compost to be described in this way?

Growing medium or compost is made up of various components. The first is the bulky ingredients. In SylvaGrow, this is largely composted wood fibre and bark with a small amount of coir.

Then there are the fertilisers and lime. The formulae we use are constantly reviewed, with an ongoing programme of trials at our in-house testing facility.

For our SylvaGrow Multi-Purpose, SylvaGrow with added John Innes, SylvaGrow Ericaceous and SylvaGrow Tub and Basket none of these ingredients are derived from animal by-products. So, we are confident to recommend them for use by vegans.



Also vegan friendly is our newly reformulated SylvaGrow Farmyard. Replacing our previous product SylvaGrow Farmyard Manure, our new formulation is entirely plant-derived. In fact, it is a by-product of a renewable energy process.

This compost retains the same level of nutrients as a traditional farmyard manure without the animal ingredients. Plus, it can be used in exactly the same way around the garden – but has the added advantage of being both vegan friendly and Soil Association approved.

The only products in our range that are not vegan are our SylvaGrow Organic and SylvaGrow Planter for Organic Growing. While these are both approved by the Soil Association, they contain animal-derived fertilisers – the sort that are widely used by organic growers, farmers and gardeners. These include materials such as bone meal and fish and bone meal.

Unfortunately, although we have tested organic fertilisers derived entirely from plants they are not suitable for composts like these. Because these composts are aimed at a wide range of uses around the garden, they simply don’t deliver enough nutrients quickly enough. But we never stop looking at these things so watch this space!

We’d love to hear how you get on with our vegan composts, so drop us a line at [email protected] or follow us on social media @sylvagrow.