I've been to southern Ireland and ridden horses over and around peat bogs, they are hideous and we were told that not a lot lived in them. There were certainly no birds. There were green fields and countryside around them and we were told that it was reclaimed peat bog filled in with soil and that it was now productive land with a lot more wildlife living in it. There were birds.
Peat is useful for energy and compost so I don't really understand what the fuss is all about
To you the peat bogs look ‘hideous’, but to the specialised plants and insects that live in them they are wonderful as they can't live anywhere else. Personally I find a peat bog full of cotton grass, emperor moths and treble bars looks magical. Destroying peat bogs completely destroys the habitat for these rare species. And who knows, maybe one of those species actually has something special about it that would provide a valuable medical product, but whoops! we’ve just killed it to help our geranium grow.
Peat is also useful as it locks up carbon, and using it for energy is one of the most polluting ways of getting energy. As a carbon store it is 10 times more efficient than a forest, but even digging it up releases carbon even before you burn it. So whoops, isn't it a shame the ice caps are melting, but hey! my geranium is still doing well.
I realise it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation, but if compost with a peat content has already been produced, and is on sale, what is being achieved by not using it. What would happen to that compost if everybody did refuse to buy it? It would end up as landfill.
It can be argued that if nobody bought it, there would be no incentive to produce it, but that still wouldn't get round the problem of what to do with what does exist.
It's not harmful to use it, it's harmful to extract it for use. So if by not buying it we reduce or cancel the demand for extraction, it doesn't mean the stuff that's already been extracted will have to be disposed of as if it's toxic! It would just have to be given away / used by the garden centres with the glut of unwanted product, etc. There's no other way, except governments banning extraction altogether, that we can stop it happening other than stopping buying it.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Trends change over years and decades. Hopefully peat use can be phased out and better alternatives will be taken up.
It's taking a ridiculously long time - which we clearly haven't got - for people to wake up though. Geoff Hamilton was arguing strongly against using peat and limestone years ago, and he had a national TV platform from which to do it. It's had very little effect. I think that the problem is that it is produced at all. You really have to look for peat-free and if people don't know (most don't) then they innocently buy whatever is available that sounds 'good'. If it wasn't so ubiquitous, people wouldn't buy it so readily, and the die-hard peat lovers could seek out their expensive peat just as those of us trying to avoid it have to do now.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
"It's taking a ridiculously long time - which we clearly haven't got."
Sure. I meant that as trends/policy change, products are phased out (peat, animal husbandry techniques, plastics productions methods etc). It doesn't meant the already packaged peat, meat, bottles etc goes to waste, it just means we stop producing more of them as we phase out. It's clear that the consumer leads on this. UK govt couldn't give a toss, evidently. Go to any GC, superstore or supermarket and they will tell you that they will "sell what the market wants". We are the market.
I mentioned the question initially as the peat question seems to have slid off the agenda. 20 years it seemed to be a big deal and compost was advertised as 'peat-free' in blazoned letters. Now the majority I see in GCs don't mention it, staff have no idea and it's fairly hard, in some cases, to find out what the compost content actually is. It's seems a good idea to know what one's compost is made of and where it co; as with everything we consume.
I realise it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation, but if compost with a peat content has already been produced, and is on sale, what is being achieved by not using it. What would happen to that compost if everybody did refuse to buy it? It would end up as landfill.
It can be argued that if nobody bought it, there would be no incentive to produce it, but that still wouldn't get round the problem of what to do with what does exist.
I don’t understand your logic. How likely is demand going to fall to zero overnight? As is more likely we’ll get there over time and demand and supply will gradually fall. Regulation by government will speed up the process. As would an Attenborough TV series 😉
I was trying to point out that those who say "Stop using xyz" immediately are using flawed logic. If a product has already been produced, for example many millions of plastic pots, there is no benefit to anybody in not using them.
Government intervention rarely does what they intend it to do. They often introduce an arbitrary date for banning the use as well as the production. I have no problem with them saying peat based compost can't be produced after a date (actually I suppose I do have a problem as any alternative I've tried is poor), but to add "can't be sold after x date" is counter productive for the reason I outlined in my original post.
Nothing is banned from sale overnight, unless its something like a product that is discovered to be seriously detrimental to human health, perhaps. There is usually a cooling off period where existing product is allowed to be sold off, it’s just not allowed to extract/manufacture more. So there will be no piles of plastic pots or bags of peat products mouldering somewhere unused even of it were ‘banned’ tomorrow.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Where possible I use peat free but as others have pointed out, it isn't always clear whether the product you're buying contains it and if it does, how much of the full bag is actually peat. QD do a good MPC called Growing Patch which I'm using for potting on etc. It doesn't say peat free on the bag so assuming its got peat in it.
However I don't use bought compost for tubs any more since starting my own composting. Plants grow like mad in the homemade stuff though the downside is uninvited seeds surviving the process.
@Helix, if you are going to quote me you could quote my whole post:-
"I'm with Hosta on this too. I'm also fed up with sticks and bits of plastic in peat free compost. I use my own compost as well.
The Norfolk Broads were peat bogs that have been dug out, they are beautiful and full of wild life.
I've been to southern Ireland and ridden horses over and around peat bogs, they are hideous and we were told that not a lot lived in them. There were certainly no birds. There were green fields and countryside around them and we were told that it was reclaimed peat bog filled in with soil and that it was now productive land with a lot more wildlife living in it. There were birds.
Peat is useful for energy and compost so I don't really understand what the fuss is all about if you finish up with something better, like the Norfolk Broads and green fields providing a good wildlife habitat."
The Norfolk Broads are an excellent habitat for all sorts of wildlife, far more than live in a peat bog. Another point - if we use peat in compost and then dig it into our gardens we are returning it to the earth where it came from, just in a different place.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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Peat is also useful as it locks up carbon, and using it for energy is one of the most polluting ways of getting energy. As a carbon store it is 10 times more efficient than a forest, but even digging it up releases carbon even before you burn it. So whoops, isn't it a shame the ice caps are melting, but hey! my geranium is still doing well.
However I don't use bought compost for tubs any more since starting my own composting. Plants grow like mad in the homemade stuff though the downside is uninvited seeds surviving the process.
"I'm with Hosta on this too. I'm also fed up with sticks and bits of plastic in peat free compost. I use my own compost as well.
The Norfolk Broads were peat bogs that have been dug out, they are beautiful and full of wild life.
I've been to southern Ireland and ridden horses over and around peat bogs, they are hideous and we were told that not a lot lived in them. There were certainly no birds. There were green fields and countryside around them and we were told that it was reclaimed peat bog filled in with soil and that it was now productive land with a lot more wildlife living in it. There were birds.
Peat is useful for energy and compost so I don't really understand what the fuss is all about if you finish up with something better, like the Norfolk Broads and green fields providing a good wildlife habitat."
The Norfolk Broads are an excellent habitat for all sorts of wildlife, far more than live in a peat bog. Another point - if we use peat in compost and then dig it into our gardens we are returning it to the earth where it came from, just in a different place.