At last! Peat sales to be banned.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

The government has published plans today to ban the sale of peat to gardeners by 2024 and to the horticultural trade by 2028.

Not only is peat a threatened habitat, it is also better than trees at carbon capture.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/18/peat-sales-to-gardeners-in-england-and-wales-to-be-banned-by-2024

@Shedmistress well it wasn't the first thing I found when looking up bord na mona compost so.... ANd the page related to their composts still refers to peat extraction etc so what I said stands....

Literally on their website front page.

Question - I live near the Somerset Levels & am aware that there is peat extraction on there to maintain the drainage ditches - would this mean those farmers can no longer sell their peat/peat-based compost past 2024 & what do they do then?

@APurpleSquirrel

Question - I live near the Somerset Levels & am aware that there is peat extraction on there to maintain the drainage ditches - would this mean those farmers can no longer sell their peat/peat-based compost past 2024 & what do they do then?

I suppose they'd just put it on their own land. What happens to soil dredged out of drainage ditches in non peat areas?

Tesselation; I just can't see how any of us are growing anything in our domestic gardens / allotments that are so important that it justifies the destruction of a natural resource to support.
Absolutely.
And for those lucky enough to have space, devote some of it to compost making. DP has perfected the art of making amazing quality compost on a large enough scale for us to be able to meet all our growing-needs.

@APurpleSquirrel

Question - I live near the Somerset Levels & am aware that there is peat extraction on there to maintain the drainage ditches - would this mean those farmers can no longer sell their peat/peat-based compost past 2024 & what do they do then?

Is that where sedge peat comes from? As opposed to the more usual moss peat?

Not only should there be a ban on peat use now (Geoff Hamilton was campaigning against it in the 90s fgs) Garden centres should make their own peat free compost.

They also ban plastic bags. I suggested it after seeing shelf after shelf of plastic bags containing bird seed at our local one.

Sorry "They should ban plastic bags".

I've been using peat based coir fibre for years it was fine (apart from the long strandy bits!). But now the only pleat free I can get locally is absolutely rubbish. Full of mouldy twiggy bits and random bits of plastic, also suspect one batch was contaminated with pesticide. It also won't hold water. I've actually been buying peat based for my houseplants just recently.

Geoff Hamilton carried out properly scientific experiments in the 90s, probably forgotten about now, it took a few years of growth but the peat free compost given the RIGHT conditions was eventually the much better one.

@APurpleSquirrel

Question - I live near the Somerset Levels & am aware that there is peat extraction on there to maintain the drainage ditches - would this mean those farmers can no longer sell their peat/peat-based compost past 2024 & what do they do then?

I wonder this too. Peat beds need management.

I buy peat free compost and it’s full of textiles, plastic and other crap. I don’t want to put plastic on my vegetable plants.

I do prefer peat based compost, it holds water because that’s what it does in RL.

I buy peat free compost and it’s full of textiles, plastic and other crap. I don’t want to put plastic on my vegetable plants.

This has been my recent experience. Also had lots of seedlings die after being transplanted into one type of peat free compost. Apparently, local authority waste compost is used in some mixes, hence the plastic and other crap, plus it can contain municipal grass cuttings which are contaminated with weedkiller, which I suspect may have been the cause of my dead seedlings. There never used to be any of these issues with peat free, but I suspect once the demand rose, the quality dropped.

I have had some pretty rubbish peat free composts, but I agree with PPs that Sylvagrow is very good, the best I have found anyway.

My local nursery has changed a lot just this year. In the spring it was really hard to find peat free amongst the huge pile of options available. By the middle of the summer it was half and half.

@ppeatfruit

Not only should there be a ban on peat use now (Geoff Hamilton was campaigning against it in the 90s fgs) Garden centres should make their own peat free compost.

They also ban plastic bags. I suggested it after seeing shelf after shelf of plastic bags containing bird seed at our local one.

I work in a garden centre. Where and how are we supposed to get the material, make, and package, the volumes of compost that we would need?

And how exactly should bird seed be transported and sold please?

I don't want to be confrontational, but reality check required here....

Things used to be sold in hessian sacks or paper bags. I know moisture is then a problem, but we’re in a situation where we can’t expect the solutions to be trivial

Whilst I do fine peat free inferior, I am sticking with it for environmental reasons. This was the first year I have been able to start my own compost, so will be doing that as much as possible. Lidl and aldi both do peat free bags of compost. I think that mixing different ones would be better as some are more twiggy and some more coir. The amount of plastic in the bags is very irritating.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Things used to be sold in hessian sacks or paper bags. I know moisture is then a problem, but we’re in a situation where we can’t expect the solutions to be trivial

And in those times, we didn't make or sell compost and transport it round the country nor did we need to feed the birds as agriculture was different

FWIW, RSPB do I think use paper sacks for bulk bags of seed and Sylvagrow do have reusable fill your own compost bags at some places

Harrys It's good to discuss things, I try not to be confrontational too!! I would 've thought that your garden centre has lots of unsold pots (even if they've had peat in you could market some of your own compost as recycled, also you could ask your customers for leftover coffee,tea etc. if they haven't room for their own compost heaps) I put the contents of all my old pots in my heaps with great success.

Ref. plastic in the peat free bags, it could be the special 'rottable' plastic bags that don't seem to rot unless they're very hot and or wet. The manufacturers will, hopefully, perfect them soon

I well remember bird feeding was a completely domestic affair in the 50s (bread, bacon rinds, peanuts, coconut) and there was very little plastic around then - it was a time of paper bags, paper cups, paper straws and carrying a string bag for your shopping.

As to when compost in bags became available,I remember Gardeners Question Time going on about John Innes, and they weren’t expecting you to make it up yourself. But the line-up I remember was “Fred Loads, Bill Sowerbutt and Professor Alan Gemell of Keele University” and Keele didn't get its university status until 1962.

On the general theme of alternatives to plastic, one of my mother’s books from the 30s has an “inspiring” story of two impecunious sisters making a birthday present for their mother of cushions made from used flour bags which they washed and dyed. So I presume flour bags of the time were cotton.

Yes Mere ref. bird feeding I also remember the RSPB saying don't feed them bread because it blows them out. Hence the explosion of the ready made seed packs|fat balls etc. I suppose.

Interesting about making cushions out of flour bags, now we can get those shopping bags made from cotton ,I'll have to try that!