Peat bogs and moors are a huge carbon storage system that also stores water and helps reduce flooding. it take thousands of years to make a few inches of peat but k-just minutes for a machine to come and scrape away huge depths of this precious commodity to use for burning or for plant growth.
There are alternatives available but, unfortunately, staff in garden centres tend to be untrained and on minimum wage so are not going to know or care about environmental initiatives and priorities.
A bit judgemental! Just because someone is on a minimum wage does not preclude them from caring about the environment. There have been many demonstrations about climate change and environmental matters, and I would hazard a guess that they are representative of all parts of society. Many Garden centre workers probably do care about environmental initiatives etc but are not in a position to influence their employers in a meaningful way.
Peat free compost for us gardeners will not be available from 2025.
But buying plants in garden centres....well they can still sell plants in peat compost.
Yes I hear what mikedbyford is saying but disagree with GW dumbing down as peat is a resource that takes so long to be produced and the carbon.....
GW isn't on a band wagon they are listening to the science out there and are responding.
We can grow our plants without making our environment even worse than it is now. We have to take a stand and look at the others available for us to use.
Although I admit I am only just trying to start using peat free, there are several highly successful nurseries that have done so for years, whom I regularly buy from.
Also many successful plants people now use nothing else.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
It's very evident from posts about peat free compost on this forum that younger gardeners are in general very positive about it, having never used a peat-based growing medium. My daughter is one of those - and shamed me into going peat free a few years ago; she learnt from her plants what they needed in terms of watering and nutrients. I've had a few failures but am gradually learning too. In general it's the old codgers amongst us (not excluding myself) who've needed the metaphorical kick up the backside to change our ways.
I bet if you dredged up old threads there would be plenty, pre peat free, complaining about the variability and poor quality of many of the composts available then. I remember sometimes having to sieve my peat-based compost to get rid of lumps and bits of stick, and finding that my preferred brand one year was pretty useless the next time I bought it.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Although I admit I am only just trying to start using peat free, there are several highly successful nurseries that have done so for years, whom I regularly buy from.
Also many successful plants people now use nothing else.
I will back my science and 40 years of experience against your unsubstantiated claim of arrogance! .. I know of NO perennial breeders and growers who have success with peat free . I can write a thesis on why it is utterly useless . I tried to go peat free for 3 years lost thousands of plants .. NEVER again! I ned to keep plants in pots for 4 years .. peat free cannot do this .. and the waste of ater because the pet free don't rewet once dry s MASSIVE pps most of the compost washes out of the bottom of the compost! ppps peat can be sustainably harvested and re formed .. the issue is whether the extractors do ...
@mikedbyford You are a biologist and you are asking about 'sustainable peat production'. Really?
Sylvagrow peat free is very good. GW have been supporting peat free compost use for 40 years. The RHS also support it. Do they count as "real growers"?
I bought 3x 9m3 of sylva grow it was a disaster ! .. You are clueless in anarea of where plants need to grow in culture/pots for more than weeks . YES peat can be sustainable if works are reflooded .. The RHS are liars .. they sell named plants in their shops that are seed raised non clonal and according to RHS own rues should NEVER be named! They are prostitutes like all commercial organisations! All about money ...
But don't the growers/plants people/GW Monti all make their own compost? Most of us don't have the room to make compost. I have yet to see Monti plant anything without mixing peat free and garden compost with drainage of some sort, which makes me wonder is the peat free not good enough to grow in by itself?
@mikedbyford perhaps you should put all your superior knowledge into a simple Google search where you'll find there are nurseries who are peat free. Just because you don't personally know of any doesn't mean they don't exist 🤷
Posts
Many Garden centre workers probably do care about environmental initiatives etc but are not in a position to influence their employers in a meaningful way.
Although I admit I am only just trying to start using peat free, there are several highly successful nurseries that have done so for years, whom I regularly buy from.
Also many successful plants people now use nothing else.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
It's very evident from posts about peat free compost on this forum that younger gardeners are in general very positive about it, having never used a peat-based growing medium. My daughter is one of those - and shamed me into going peat free a few years ago; she learnt from her plants what they needed in terms of watering and nutrients. I've had a few failures but am gradually learning too. In general it's the old codgers amongst us (not excluding myself) who've needed the metaphorical kick up the backside to change our ways.
I bet if you dredged up old threads there would be plenty, pre peat free, complaining about the variability and poor quality of many of the composts available then. I remember sometimes having to sieve my peat-based compost to get rid of lumps and bits of stick, and finding that my preferred brand one year was pretty useless the next time I bought it.
I have yet to see Monti plant anything without mixing peat free and garden compost with drainage of some sort, which makes me wonder is the peat free not good enough to grow in by itself?