Among the many small businesses tucked away in  Cleobury Country is The Archers at the Larches in Oreton, established by Lou Archer, where she keeps 21 alpacas and runs a thriving online business selling products made from their fleeces - socks, scarves, throws and bedding - and their poo! She also has a cut flower garden providing blooms for bouquets and bunches that are long-lasting and unique. Cleobury Gardeners had a private visit in June to learn more.

Alpaca manure is a cold manure, which can be spread onto soil without being composted. Lou has developed, with botanic specialists, fertilisers using alpacas’ poo, which she sells online and at prestigious events including RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It is dried, shredded or made into ‘beans’ and used as a fertiliser rich in slow-release nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as selling it in liquid form. 

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All of these products are sold online (thearchersatthelarches.com)

 

The cutting garden is a riot of colourful healthy plants thanks to the alpaca fertiliser, and excess fleece is used as a mulch on her flower beds – superb for maintaining moisture and suppressing weeds. She grows perennials, cold season hardy annuals (such as corn cockle, sown in October, planted out in November for flowering when the warm weather arrives), and biennials such as foxgloves, larkspur and nigella. She uses her flowers to fulfill orders for brides and special occasions, as well as selling to people who call in to buy some.​​

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The Cloebury Gardeners group will learn more from her session on 10 November 2025 at 7pm at Cleobury Country Centre on growing cold season hardy annuals and more techniques for successful cut flower gardening. Why not come along? £5 for a visitor and an added bonus of wine or soft drinks since the first (and short!) part of the evening will be our AGM.

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Flo Hadley