Originally posted by Potstubsdustbins
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Originally posted by Dynamo View PostI've just bought 128 litres of B&Q peat free
I got lots of New Horizon at B&Q in their autumn sale (smug smiley)All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.
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Originally posted by smallblueplanet View PostVery poor journalism is what it sounds like.
I think that what the guy being interviewed was saying was that there shouldn't be a blanket ban on peat extraction. He was saying that every site should be judged on its own merits. In the case of the site in question, a lot of good is being done. Would you rather the area was left alone as rubbish farmland, or would you prefer for the current project to carry on where they can continue making great wildlife habitats that are about to receive world heritage status? I know which one I would prefer.
Originally posted by Two_Sheds View PostThat's a shame: you've just paid good money for the worst compost I've ever used. It's like scrapings from a forest floor, great big ole chunks of wood in it
I got lots of New Horizon at B&Q in their autumn sale (smug smiley)
I bought the compost on special offer and its not too bad to be honest. There is a bit of wood in it, but I'll soon sieve that out, and it will all get dug into the allotment somewhere.
I did look for New Horizon compost in the shop but I didn't see any.
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I didn't see this Countryfile programme but have watched others. My question is about the statement about it being "rubbish farmland". Surely there is no such thing? Land is land, and there is always a use for it. If one took that attitude most of the hill farms would have their land destroyed as "rubbish", just because the main, perhaps only, agricultural use for it is sheep grazing, as opposed to the more lucrative crop growing. I suspect that "Rubbish land" is a definition of the land owner who can see greater profit in selling peat than in farming. Many old quarries and landfill sites are now nature reserves and wildlife habitats - there is nothing exceptional in that.
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Originally posted by Dynamo View PostWas that because they didn't agree with your opinion? I watch countyfile on a regular basis and I find it both very informative and usually very fair in its judgements. I can only assume that you never watch the programme for you to come out with such a blanket statement like that is so far removed from fact...(To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
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The best peat-free compost is the stuff you make yourself and that's what we should all be doing. It isn't rocket science and the basic ingredients are all around us.
I reckon this year I'll have about 1500 litres of home produced, compost, leaf-mould, etc. to go at and I'm an old codger with arthritis so if I can do it anyone can. The only time I need peat is for my blueberries but I have a 1200 acre peat moss on my doorstep so that's not a problem...unless somebody tells English Nature.
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Originally posted by smallblueplanet View PostPerhaps you could just ask for my answer rather than trying to be sarcastic? As it is you have made your mind up so I needn't bother replying...only to say perhaps your original post might have been clearer and less 'sensationalist' if what you now put is true.
If you bothered to read my other posts in this thread I'm sure you'd have found it blatantly obvious that I HAVEN'T already made my mind up, hence the reason why I purchased a load of peat free compost today.
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Originally posted by solway cropper View PostThe best peat-free compost is the stuff you make yourself ...The only time I need peat is for my blueberries
Monty Don uses composted bracken, pine bark and pine needles as a peat replacement.
"Peat has only been in widespread use since the mid-Seventies. Before this, gardeners either made their own potting and seed compost or bought ready-made composts with loam (soil composed of sand, silt and clay in relatively even concentration), doing the job of peat. In the intervening years we have been fed the myth that peat is essential" Do we need to use peat? - Telegraph
"Plants like rhododendrons and camellias don’t need peat, they need a lime-free, water-retaining medium with a low pH."All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.
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I have home made compost bins at my allotment, plus I recently bought a couple of big dalek type bins from the local council for home. The compost I make at the allotment is usually no better than the course peatless compost you usually get so I just spread that onto the allotment as a general soil improver. Its still early days with the daleks at home. I haven't even started on the second one yet.
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In the interest of fair debate a couple of points for you to discuss.
(a) If all peat usage for gardening in Britain was stopped for a year tomorrow. One Irish power station would burn that amount of peat in about 21 days and there are three peat powered power stations. Maybe just maybe the ban should start there.
(b) Some experts state that sphagnum is growing at a faster rate in the northern hemisphere than it is being used in potting composts.
(c) And most shocking. Even Bob Flowerdew argues the case for using peat in some instances.
There's interesting.
ColinPotty by name Potty by nature.
By appointment of VeggieChicken Member of the Nutters club.
We hang petty thieves and appoint great ones to public office.
Aesop 620BC-560BC
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Bought B&Q peat free last year and was not impressed in the slightest very VERY coarse.
I sieved it and used it to bulk up my own heap.
This years heap is a lot bigger, so hoping to buy less :-) if I do though, I think I'll get the New Horizons.
Re the ecological debate. The amounts of peat used for substrates is tiny compared to the amounts used in certain countries for power stations. It's they who do the real damage sadly both in terms of destroying habitat and in CO2 emissions. :-(Clay soil is just the big yins way of letting you know nothing good comes easy.
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Originally posted by mrpaulbradley View PostThe amounts of peat used for substrates is tiny compared to the amounts used in certain countries
So there.
Now shoot me.All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.
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I tried using my own compost mixed with sand (last year) for seed sowing. Lets just say I won't be doing that again. I have got loads of leaf mould on the go so in a couple of years....
As for New Horizon - it's probably the best, but I do find it runs out of oomph very quickly. I'm going to try watering with weed bin tea this year, see if that improves things.
The problem is finding it at a reasonable price. There's not many places that sell it, one GC near where I work doesn't even do peat free. When I asked them they tried to tell me that it was all peat free these days. Obviously I looked at him with a 'don't think so' face and he admitted his error after looking at the bags. Someone higher up told me they don't do it cos it's too expensive and no one wants it cos it's not very good. When the consumer is up against this kind of garbage is there any wonder people won't go peat free?Last edited by Shadylane; 25-01-2012, 05:35 PM.
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2Sheds why would anyone want to shoot you for having such laudible intentions I don't think anyone could argue your train of thought about our countryside.
However I don't think our political masters have thought this though properly. Yes there is loads of rhetoric but very little else. I fear this may go the way of the much lauded ban on hand guns which cost the tax payers millions of pounds yet delivered nothing in the way of reduced armed crime. And in reality was a quick knee jerk reaction to placate the anti gun lobby.
There will still be peat extraction for other purposes and the very small reduction will do nothing to reduce the damage being done either nationally or globally. The peat extraction companies will look to other markets and if they find something more lucrative may even up production.
Of course there is already talk of circumnavigating the ban by just buying a bale of peat and making your own compost.
In my own opinion the best way forward for gardeners would be for the peat free industry to make a determined effort to produce a product that is demonstrably as good as 'peat in' compost. Until that happens this argument will continue.
ColinPotty by name Potty by nature.
By appointment of VeggieChicken Member of the Nutters club.
We hang petty thieves and appoint great ones to public office.
Aesop 620BC-560BC
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Originally posted by Potstubsdustbins View PostIn my own opinion the best way forward for gardeners would be for the peat free industry to make a determined effort to produce a product that is demonstrably as good as 'peat in' compost. Until that happens this argument will continue.
Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.
Which one are you and is it how you want to be?
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