Can somebody tell me about Peat?

[JennyPenny23]

I am new to gardening, and new to having a nice big garden with vegetable patches etc.

We seemed to have inheritted, LOTS of peat (well thats what my Dad thinks it is anyway.).

Is it any good for anything? We are mostly focusing on growing fruit and veges with a few flowers.

Do you mean peaty soil or bags of it? Peaty soil is meant to be the best for growing isn't it? What sort of colour/texture is it?

Um, I used to cut it and dry it and make it into peatstacks and put it on the fire. We lived in the Outer Hebrides. And that's about as much as I know about peat (sorry!)

Good for seedings.

Nutritionally poor for growing on.

Acidic.

Dries out nicely.

Burns well when dry (see above post)

Apparently:

Peaty soil contains more organic material than other soils because its acidity inhibits the process of decomposition. This type of soils contains fewer nutrients than many other soils and is prone to over-retaining water. Through good management and use of fertiliser and artificial drainage excellent plants can be grown.

also apparently:

the fens of eastern England are very peaty and are some of the country's best farmland. Plants grow happily in it, as long as they can adjust to the relatively acid conditions. Almost black to look at, easy to dig over and spongy to the touch, peaty soil can be soaking in winter and dry during most of the summer.

Hope this helps

I'm jealous because I don't have a garden...good luck with yours!

Basically, when we looked round the house there was a pond, which was in a bad way. As I am a childminder, the landlord said she would fill it in for me. All the work that has been done on this house is very very odd and doesn't make sence.

Well to the pond, they left the liner in, filled it up, with what seems like Peat and then shoved loads of loose bricks on top?!?!?!

Anyway, we have now dug it out, removed the pond liner, filled with mostly earth with some peat mixed in and then turfed over it. We are now left with loads of peat. I have worked some into the vegetable patches but still have loads to do (although do have some beds left etc that I can put it on, but I wanted to check it was OK to do it!).

It is dark looking, quite dry, I have planted a some butternut squash in some pots with some and they are growing, so can't be too bad.
It also has lots of white bits in - I have no idea what these are.

I have been lookng on google, but I am still no wiser

Thanks.

Mary - yes I read that via google about it being protected. We wouldn't have bought it anyway and I have no idea why anybody would?

Why don't you suddenly develop an obsession for carniverous plants? They're about the one thing that actually does need peat to grow in, because of the very low nutrient content.