Our Story
Our Founder
For almost 30 years, Jonathan Martin, our founder and CEO, worked as an international corporate lawyer.
Always a keen gardener and having grown up in the countryside, he decided to try something completely different but related to the things he had always loved. He became an inventor and an entrepreneur - and set about building the business, drawing on his experience and resources, and driven by his vision. This has led the Acqua and its first product - the Acqua Garden.
Jonathan's belief that we can all make a difference by how we live and what we eat has been the driving force behind the development of the Acqua Garden. A product that was designed and developed by Jonathan himself, and aimed at helping us on so many levels.
Health and Nutrition
Central to our story is our goal of providing the means for all to grow and consume more nutritional food. By providing systems which enable growing of fresh produce at or close to the point of consumption.
Produce rapidly loses its nutritional content from the point of harvest and this is generally highly depleted by the time of purchase from a supermarket or other outlet. We are enabling the growing of produce at home, as well as by restaurants, schools, workplaces, care homes - in fact, pretty much anywhere.
With only a short time from plant to plate, the vitamin, mineral and other nutritional content of the produce then consumed is unbeatable. We will provide our systems globally, in all regions and to all who have a need for higher nutrition and simple means to obtain this. This is our greater mission.
Reducing our carbon footprints
Modern techniques for growing, packaging and delivering food are huge contributors to the world's carbon footprint. Growing your own produce helps to reduce your impact on the environment. Food transportation is a major cause of pollution and, we believe, climate change.
But with an Acqua Garden you are doing far more than this. Typically, plants are grown in soil or very commonly in a medium that includes peat, the major ingredient in most compost you might buy at your garden centre. Peat usage is hugely detrimental to our planet. Our precious peat bogs are the largest single contributor to carbon sequestration, estimated at twice the impact of all of the world’s forestation. The peat bogs have been hugely depleted, reducing the good they do. Moreover, when peat is harvested, it releases its captured carbon. So a double impact.
Using coconut coir avoids all of this. Through our use of coir only, we are leaving the peat bogs to do what they do so well, store carbon and reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
Making growing accessible to all
In the modern age, the move to live in cities and towns is repeated the world over, and is accelerating. And we all know that urban dwelling does not lend itself to gardening or growing produce, with fertile land and even space to grow or garden at a premium or simply not available. We believe that our simple, self-contained vertical growing systems are the way forward for urban dwellers, as well as others. Gardening is also such a wonderful, therapeutic and relaxing activity. It has been shown to have many positive benefits in areas from depression and loneliness, to dementia and autism. We believe that, with its simple functionality, accessibility and ease of use, the Acqua Garden will make gardening available to many people who would otherwise be unable to participate in this rewarding and engaging pastime, and thereby to make a contribution to alleviating some of these issues.