I don't think we can also compare what people did in the past re growing, with what we do nowadays. It's a totally different scenario. Gardening is a massive business, with thousands of plants available for people to buy and grow, which wasn't the case 50 or 60 years ago. People would have grown a smaller range of plants, and a lot of their own edibles, and they'd have made compost and used that, or their own soil. Garden centres didn't exist in any great numbers until around the 50s/60s, and they would have been more like nurseries too. I don't recall my parents visiting any at that time, as there weren't any in the area. It's about supply and demand - and marketing/advertising. We also used to chemically kill every living thing that entered the garden in case it ate those plants. Things change and evolve, and yes- we could all make our own products, but it isn't that simple either, because you need enough materials to do it, and you're limited as to how much you eventually have. I think part of the problem was the increase in people gardening during the pandemic @DaveGreig, so I'd agree with you that many products simply weren't ready. That might improve - hopefully ! I also agree that there's no point replacing one thing that damages the environment with yet another one that just does it in a different way. Electric cars anyone? Same problem IMO.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We will always be destroying the world in way or another. Stop extracting peat, it captures carbon. Lets cut down forests instead to grow bamboo, coconuts, and other new quick cut wonder products, and so on instead.. As one of those articles said, people believe with their hearts and they only focus one thing at a time.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I grow my own peat, but I don't have much choice. The waterlogged gullies in the sheep fields are full of rushes. I've just spent 2 hours in one field clearing a small, (tiny!) patch of them as they continually invade the grazing areas. The sheep only nibble the new tips.
In between the rush stalks there is sphagnum moss, so I'm not sure whether it counts as moss peat or sedge peat, but if I need a little of either for a particular plant I know where to go
Thing is, @thevictorian , take my next door neighbours. They like to grow plants in pots, they're very good at it, but don't have a garden, just a small yard. They and people who do the same have neither the room, the resources, nor the inclination to do home composting...
Whilst I'm very much a home composting advocate I wasn't necessarily meaning everyone needed to do it. I think most, if not all, councils take green waste now and they sell it on either straight to the public or to larger compost manufacturers. I don't see why we can't just use what we already have and maybe add some extra stuff to it to replace other elements. It's shocking the amount we throw away or don't utilise properly. If you look at peat free composts they can have bracken, wool, bark, wood fibres and a few other things that are all locally sourced and added to green waste, I don't really see the need to add coir to that mix. Moving forward things like hemp could be locally grown and added as a by product. I also think sea weed could play a nice part with the benefit of it not needing to be looked after and it reducing co2. It's not that I'm massively against coir but I don't think it should be used outside of where it's grown. Our world seems to only have an environmental conscience when it is our local area being affected. If we can ship in the solution from elsewhere then the damage is caused by someone else and we can sleep soundly.
Environmentally speaking, I think the way forward for compost has got to be green waste and wood/bark chips that are waste products of the timber industry, but the products mostly fall short and being a cynical old biddy I think many of the manufacturers will probably continue cutting corners (not letting it compost for long enough and not sieving/screening well enough) as long as their products keep selling.
Meanwhile we keep buying it in the hope that this time it'll be better. I do make my own compost but in nowhere near the quantity I need for raising and growing on plants, my permanent containers and mulching as well, so I don't really see a solution other than to keep trying with it, and mix in some sieved homemade compost, sand, grit, perlite etc to improve it for particular uses, which is hard on people who don't have space/materials to make their own compost or store loads of other ingredients .
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Maybe I'm cynical too @JennyJ, but I wonder how many bags of compost are sold annually in the UK. A fair few I reckon. If everyone stopped buying it, just for a year, that might make the producers sit up and take notice. Sadly, without a superhuman effort, and a lot of organising - maybe via social meedja etc, that won't happen. It's the only way to encourage companies to look at what they're using to make it, and producing a good, worthwhile, consistent product, at a reasonable price.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Maybe I'm cynical too @JennyJ, but I wonder how many bags of compost are sold annually in the UK. A fair few I reckon. If everyone stopped buying it, just for a year, that might make the producers sit up and take notice.
@f@Fairygirl the problem with compost is that you don't know whether it's any good or not until you have bought it.
I know - but that's what I mean. The consistency has disappeared over the last few years - whether it's peat or peat free, but especially the peat free stuff, which people are trying to convert to - understandably. My point was simply that if no one bought any of it, and particularly the peat free stuff, perhaps it would change things a bit, but I know that's highly unlikely to happen
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
As @KT53 says, you don’t know until you’ve bought it. There are dozens of threads on here about composts but it’s always the same, inconsistencies. Someone will say I’ll never buy that again, someone else loves it. I definitely would not have bought that peat free stuff on Saturday if I’d read the bag first, My own fault. But then someone will say they love it.
@thevictorian I don’t know if they add it to green waste compost, do they? it’s mostly sold in brick shaped pieces, you soak it in water.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
@thevictorian I don’t know if they add it to green waste compost, do they? it’s mostly sold in brick shaped pieces, you soak it in water.
I've seen coir listed on compost bags but unsure if it's a green mix base. It is sold in blocks but I know many plant nursery's use it, especially houseplant ones and at least one of those buys it mixed with green waste because I saw it mentioned on a video tour.
Posts
Garden centres didn't exist in any great numbers until around the 50s/60s, and they would have been more like nurseries too. I don't recall my parents visiting any at that time, as there weren't any in the area. It's about supply and demand - and marketing/advertising.
We also used to chemically kill every living thing that entered the garden in case it ate those plants. Things change and evolve, and yes- we could all make our own products, but it isn't that simple either, because you need enough materials to do it, and you're limited as to how much you eventually have.
I think part of the problem was the increase in people gardening during the pandemic @DaveGreig, so I'd agree with you that many products simply weren't ready. That might improve - hopefully !
I also agree that there's no point replacing one thing that damages the environment with yet another one that just does it in a different way.
Electric cars anyone? Same problem IMO.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Stop extracting peat, it captures carbon.
Lets cut down forests instead to grow bamboo, coconuts, and other new quick cut wonder products, and so on instead..
As one of those articles said, people believe with their hearts and they only focus one thing at a time.
Whilst I'm very much a home composting advocate I wasn't necessarily meaning everyone needed to do it. I think most, if not all, councils take green waste now and they sell it on either straight to the public or to larger compost manufacturers. I don't see why we can't just use what we already have and maybe add some extra stuff to it to replace other elements.
It's shocking the amount we throw away or don't utilise properly. If you look at peat free composts they can have bracken, wool, bark, wood fibres and a few other things that are all locally sourced and added to green waste, I don't really see the need to add coir to that mix. Moving forward things like hemp could be locally grown and added as a by product. I also think sea weed could play a nice part with the benefit of it not needing to be looked after and it reducing co2.
It's not that I'm massively against coir but I don't think it should be used outside of where it's grown. Our world seems to only have an environmental conscience when it is our local area being affected. If we can ship in the solution from elsewhere then the damage is caused by someone else and we can sleep soundly.
Sadly, without a superhuman effort, and a lot of organising - maybe via social meedja etc, that won't happen. It's the only way to encourage companies to look at what they're using to make it, and producing a good, worthwhile, consistent product, at a reasonable price.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My point was simply that if no one bought any of it, and particularly the peat free stuff, perhaps it would change things a bit, but I know that's highly unlikely to happen
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
There are dozens of threads on here about composts but it’s always the same, inconsistencies. Someone will say I’ll never buy that again, someone else loves it.
I definitely would not have bought that peat free stuff on Saturday if I’d read the bag first, My own fault. But then someone will say they love it.
I've seen coir listed on compost bags but unsure if it's a green mix base. It is sold in blocks but I know many plant nursery's use it, especially houseplant ones and at least one of those buys it mixed with green waste because I saw it mentioned on a video tour.