Important Poll: Tell GYO What You Think

[Emma Ward]

Afternoon all,

We've been having a chat about an interesting topic around the office and we'd really like your input. The UK has lost 94%* of its lowland peat bogs since the beginning of the 19th-century and two thirds of the peat harvested is used by amateur gardeners. We want to know if you use it or have done in the past?

Please vote in the poll attached and, if you wish, post your comments on the thread below! Your answers may be edited and included in the June issue of Grow Your Own. Bit of deadline on this one I'm afraid, if you could vote and post by Friday of this week I'd be very grateful.


Thanks
Emma


* Statistic taken from Wildlife Trust Journal.

[Jeanied]

Hi Emma - happy to vote - when you add the poll!
ETA - there it is!

[Emma Ward]

Wowser! You're quick off the mark Sorry about that, I was having a bit of a moment.

Glad you're so keen

Thanks
Emma

[HeyWayne]

Not sure why I use peat free - I just do. Seems to be one of those things that just seems the right thing to do.

[pdblake]

I put other. I buy what I can afford to, if I need it. I've also found that many peat free composts don't hold moisture very well.

I'd be interested to see where your figure of 94% comes from though, seems a very high figure. The other thing is, where does the other third go to?

[Jeanied]

Wowser! You're quick off the mark Sorry about that, I was having a bit of a moment.

Glad you're so keen

Thanks
Emma

Emma I think one or two of us are a bit bored with the day job!

[Pumpkin Becki]

The other thing is, where does the other third go to?

That seems like a strange figure to me too, specially when you consider that most plants available from the garden centre/ DIY stores are clearly grown in peat based compost...however.

I voted 'Yes, before it became widely known about'.
I've only been gardening for 14 years, since I moved in with my husband, and in the beginning didn't understand that there were alternative products on the market, and the reasons for using them. I just did what I'd been taught to do by my mother, and she learnt her gardening techniques from her grandfather. If someone teaches you to use a John Innes 'whatever' mix for something, then you tend to stick to it because you know it and trust it.

Since then I've taken much more of an interest in the environment and our impact on it, and so now I always shop for a peat-free alternative.

[ginger ninger]

Hello Emma,
When I started gardening it was in my dads allotment and I was only 4 or 5, I grew carrots in pots of dirt that dad gave me which had been enriched with horse poo and stuff from the compost heap. Later in life when I moved out and started to garden in my own little patch, dad brought me sacks of dirt from the old allotment site to help start me off. Now I make my own compost a friend lets me have lots of horse poo, if I buy compost it's from the recycle depot near by. I have bought other well known brands of compost, but there full of twigs and small stones and I hate having to sieve them before I can use them. To the best of my knowledge I haven't used compost with peat in it.

[Helgalush]

Hi, I am a complete newbie to gardening and although I try to look for Peat-Free MPC because of the environmental concern, it isnt always clear from the labelling whether it contains Peat or not. Being generally quite uninformed about soil properties, I tend to buy either Peat-Free MPC or whatever is recommended from a book, packet or website in relation to that variety.

When something suggests Soil-Less Compost or something like that I honestly couldnt tell you whether that means it is peat-based or not So I think labelling and education/information is the issue for me.

[smallblueplanet]

I have in the past used 'derived peat' - Moorland Gold.

Moorland Gold Derived Peat is ... a naturally washed peat product comprising of leaf mould and sphagnum. This is collected without damage to the surrounding countryside through a unique source of water filtration, helping protect peat bogs for future generations. Moorland Gold, rich in naturally occurring minerals and trace elements, combined with other sustainable ingredients creates an ideal growing media. All growing media made from Moorland Gold carry the Soil Association Symbol of Approval.

[Caro]

I have used peat-based composts in the past, but now that peat-free composts seem a viable alternative, and in some cases even better than peat-based composts, I'll switch to them. As a novice gardner, I felt my plants needed all the help they could get, and peat-free was considered a poorer growing medium.

[Glutton4...]

I, too, have used it in the past. Since becoming more environmentally aware, however, I don't. I never cease to be amazed at the 'garbage' one finds in a bag of 'compost. Just recently, I found I had wire, electrical connectors, and sticks longer and thicker than my fingers. All these came to light as the medium was so lumpy I had to sieve it before use, despite the bag saying 'suitable for sowing...' Luckily it was cheap.

[Nicos]

As I can't vote for 2- then I can't vote

Of course we all bought peat based products years ago- we knew no better- and to my knowledge there wasn't an alternative.
I've never bought peat based composts until I came to France...and I can't seem to find a non peat based product anywhere...so much for an 'environmentally aware ' country!

Count yourselves lucky you have a choice!

[vegnut]

Yes i did use peat based composts in the past before the environmentally friendly thing kicked in.
I must admit that i hate the thought of helping to destroy our peat bogs. So i now do my utmost to buy other types of composts.

[sarraceniac]

I try to use the 'Moorland Gold' that SBP talks about but you can't often get it round this neck of the woods.

As my beloved carnivorous plants demand an acid growing medium with no nutrition in it at all I am a bit stuck and am really forced to use peat. I did try my own mix of coir and sphagnum moss but the sarras started to look very poorly and I had to go back to peat. About every 3 years I give my blueberries a 'refresh' of peat and a mulch of pine needles as well. Does my neutral soil no end of good.