Our Story
Our Seeds
There’s nothing more disappointing for a gardener than to sow some seeds, only to find none of them come up. Or to go through weeks (or even months) of nurturing a seedling only for it to produce a disappointing harvest. As gardeners and growers, we have felt your pain! And we’ve found a better way.
Seeds grown in naturally managed gardens need to be robust and resilient. They need to be quick off the mark to get themselves established. They need to be able to bounce back from being nibbled. They need the genetic toolkit to benefit from a rich, living soil.
Many modern varieties, particularly F1 hybrids, have lost their ability to thrive in real, living gardens. They’re fussy. They need zero competition from weeds and plenty of chemical inputs to grow well. Essentially, they have been bred to fit into the model of an industrial farm - a system we know is incredibly environmentally damaging (read our blog for more on the subject).
Our seeds are different. We focus on heirloom varieties that are robust enough to thrive on our wild (and beautiful) Dorset farm. If they grow well for us, you can be sure they’ll grow wonderfully on your plot.
Our Farm
We run a 3 acre seed farm in Dorset where we select and save the majority of the seeds for our shop. We use organic & regenerative techniques to cultivate our seed crops and improve our soil.
Like your garden, our farm isn't perfect. We have a heavy clay soil that is slow to warm up and dry out. We have the long wet winters Dorset is known for. And we have a myriad of wildlife who have quickly developed a taste for our seeds!
But alongside all of the challenges is so much beauty. Hedgerows full of blossom, kestrels and red kites circling overhead and a field which hums with life all summer long.
We believe that our wild & imperfect patch of earth is the perfect place to produce seeds for your garden.
Our Vision
Collectively, our gardens in the UK cover more land than all of our national parks put together.
They are a vital safe haven for nature.
But when it comes to growing vegetables and cut flowers (the ‘productive’ plants), we shy away from nature’s wildness and fall back on growing neat rows of plants surrounded by bare soil.
For us at Winnow Farm, these ‘tidy’ plots are sorely lacking space for nature. Wildlife needs unkempt corners to thrive in.
If we care about nature, we need to unlearn this controlled, sterile approach to growing our own produce and nurture a vision of wild, natural abundance.
But we know that growing food and flowers in this way presents its own unique set of challenges. If you want your plants to produce abundantly in your wild, garden ecosystem, you need to start with the right seeds.
Ellen Rignell
Ellen established Winnow Farm Seeds in 2024 to provide seeds that are robust & resilient enough to thrive in naturally-managed spaces.
"We save seeds for gardeners who want to grow vegetables & flowers and make space for nature at the same time.
If you hold off mowing your lawn to save some nectar for the bees; if you often feel more like you're foraging rather than harvesting their produce; if you're more interested in feeding the soil than feeding your plants, I think I have the right seeds for you!"
Ellen has been growing vegetables, flowers and seeds for over a decade, both professionally and at home. Her horticultural work has spanned organic market gardening, commercial seed production and plant science. She has also spent years working at the Gaia Foundation's Seed Sovereignty Programme, coordinating the thriving seed saving network in the South West.
Winnow Farm Seeds is largely a one-woman seed company and Ellen leads on all aspects - from the seed farm to sending out your orders.