Peat

It’s that time of year again when gardeners head to the garden centre to get some compost.  Unfortunately you will still find peat based composts for sale despite the promises of previous governments to halt the retail sale of peat by 2024. The legislation to enact this ban looks to be stalled.

Peat accumulates at the rate of about 1mm per year, so when you see pictures like this you know current approaches to peat use are completely unsustainable. It isn’t naturally fertile, it’s a growing medium made fertile by the addition of fertilisers.

Hawkes Co. drivers use tractors to vacuum dried peat while harvesting. Courtesy of Hawkes Co.

Peat is a better store of carbon than trees as once trapped in a water logged bog the carbon can stay trapped almost indefinitely, until we come along!  Not only does peat store carbon, it acts as a sponge absorbing water and slowly releasing it, so helping to prevent flash flooding as our climate changes with the resultant torrential downpours.  It also helps to purify water, with much of our drinking water coming from upland areas.

Not only is peat being exploited for gardening, it’s still being used as a home heating fuel!

It can also be burnt on moors when heather is being burnt to create ideal grouse feeding conditions for the shooting industry when a controlled burn also damages the underlying peat.

The government is currently conducting a consultation on amendments to The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021. Heather and grassland burning is currently carried out under licence but from an environmental perspective on many levels it’s hard to see why it should be allowed at all.  Please respond to the consultation.

Meanwhile, what can you do? 

• Write to your MP asking for the stalled peat ban legislation to be progressed and for the cutting and burning of peat for home heating to be banned.
• Buy peat free compost!  For guides to peat free compost see RSS | RSS  and Peat-free compost choices / RHS Gardening and The best peat-free compost for eco-friendly gardening
• See tips for using peat free compost at Peat-free compost: what is peat and how to use it - Which?
• Make your own compost using this guidance.  Surely the best answer!

Ask your MP to vote for Ten Minute Rule Motion on peat ban - Tuesday 16th April

The government promised to ban the sale of peat by the end of 2024 but they are dragging their feet and show no signs of introducing legislation. Theresa Villiers is introducing a Ten Minute Rule Motion on Tuesday 16th April that would force them to take action if enough MPs support it. Please contact your MP and ask them to vote for the Motion!

If you don't have your MP's contact details, you can look them up on the Write to Them website. We've written a template email below. Do add a personal comment if you can, as that will make it more powerful. Are you a gardener who uses peat-free compost? Have you ever visited a peat bog and been awed by the biodiversity? 

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Dear [MP's name],

I am writing to ask you to vote to support a Ten Minute Rule Motion secured by Theresa Villiers on Tuesday 16th April, calling for the end of peat use by the public. 

The government promised to end the sale of peat in 2024 by introducing legislation. They have told organisations like Friends of the Earth that they will introduce measures when parliamentary time permits. However, time is running out and no measures were mentioned in the King's speech. The Ten Minute Rule Motion provides a crucial opportunity to get the issue debated and voted on in Parliament. If it is voted through to a second reading, Defra would have to draw up a legal framework for a Bill and the government would have to fulfil its promise.

Over the last 10,000 years, UK peatlands have sequestered 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon - nearly 40 times the amount of carbon stored in our woodlands. Peatlands contain about half of the UK's stored carbon. Globally, peatlands store about half a trillion tonnes of carbon, trapping organic matter underwater. Digging up the peat enables oxygen to get to it, so the organic matter starts to decay, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The environmental damage caused by extracting peat for compost is immense. It releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Peat bogs are also excellent areas of biodiversity, so peat extraction contributes to habitat and species loss. You can read more about the importance of peatlands for biodiversity on the Wildlife Trusts' website.

Using peat in horticulture is completely unnecessary. There are more sustainable alternatives to use in bagged compost. Gardeners including Monty Don and the organisation Garden Organic advocate growing without using peat and provide information for gardeners on how to do that. We shouldn't be destroying a valuable habitat and an important carbon sink for our gardens.

The text of the Motion as it appears in the House of Commons order paper is as follows:

HORTICULTURAL PEAT (PROHIBITION OF SALE): TEN MINUTE RULE MOTION

Theresa Villiers

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the prohibition of the sale in England of horticultural peat by the end of 2024; to provide for certain exemptions from that prohibition; and for connected purposes.

Notes: The Member moving and a Member opposing this Motion may each speak for up to 10 minutes.

I hope you will be able to support this. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name & address]

Going peat free

 As the snowdrops break out in bloom, the daffodil shoots show and the seed catalogues drop on the mat our thoughts are turning to spring, that is just around the corner.  What will we grow?  What seeds do we need?  What compost will we grow them in?

This is the last year of retail sales of peat, with a ban on retail peat sales coming in 2024.  At last you may say!  Peat accumulates in waterlogged bogs at the rate of about 1mm per year, so it takes a 1,000 years to grow a metres depth of peat and yet we are getting through 3 million cubic metres of peat a year (DEFRA figure), nearly two-thirds of that being through retail sales of peat.  Peat holds more carbon than all the other carbon stores combined.  They are also a biodiversity hot-spot too, providing a home to countless types of plants and animal species

Why not make this year you only buy peat free compost?  There are an increasing number of peat free composts available as retailers prepare for the coming ban.  If you have a Which? subscription you will have access to the latest best buy guides that have just been published.

The bad news is that a ban on the use of peat by the horticultural industry is not expected until about 2030, so plants being sold in garden centres will often be grown in peat.  Peat is not fertile, it is only made fertile through the addition of fertiliser after it is harvested.  It is just a growing medium, so the creation of an alternative growing medium, with added fertiliser, is perfectly possible.  Peat use is more about cost (it’s cheap) than its performance comparted to peat free alternatives.

When buying plants this year why not check to see what compost they are grown in?  One of our most powerful campaigning tools is to decide how we spend our money.  It’s time to start checking the small print on that plant label and if it isn’t there start asking the retailer how the plants are grown. The power to change the horticulture industry over to peat free alternative composts is in our hands.

Lastly have you ever considered what compost our food is grown in?  It may surprise you to know that some foods, e.g. mushrooms, are grown on peat based compost. Where possible why not try and find out how your food is grown and steer clear of peat grown food?

Leicester & Leicestershire Peat-Free List 2022

Since launching our 'Leicester is No Place for Peat' campaign last year, we have been contacting organisations and asking them to go peat-free. We are now ready to reveal our updated list of peat-free places in Leicester and Leicestershire! We have also compiled a list of where to buy peat-free compost locally. If you know of a shop or an organisation that should be included on our list, please contact us.

Peat-Free Places and Organisations

Avenue Primary School, Leicester

Brooke House School, Cosby, Leicestershire

Brookside Primary School, Oadby, Leicestershire

Community Harvest Whetstone, Leicestershire

Graceworks Community Garden, Evington, Leicester

Granby Primary School, Leicester

Hinckley Railway Station Garden and planters, Hinckley, Leicestershire

Leicester City Council (all gardens)

Manor High School, Oadby, Leicestershire

Overdale Infants School, Leicester

Overdale Junior School, Leicester

University of Leicester

Woodland Grange Primary School, Oadby, Leicestershire

 

Peat-Free Compost Suppliers

Most big chain stores selling garden supplies will have at least one brand of peat-free compost, although you may need to check labels carefully to find it!

Attfields Farm Shop, Cosby, Leicestershire

Bennett's (hardware store), Evington

Coles Nursery, Thurnby, Leicestershire

Co-op supermarkets 

Kibworth Garden Centre

For a full list of peat-free compost brands and peat-free nurseries across the UK, check out Dogwooddays’ list. The nearest peat-free nursery is Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, which only grow using peat-free compost. You can order from them online and plants will arrive in cardboard packaging.

Leicestershire CC Waste Consultation

Leicestershire CC are running a consultation about waste, which appears to be primarily focused on residents, not groups, see Leicestershire's Resources and Waste Strategy 2022-2050 | Leicestershire County Council.  The consultation closes on the 25^th April and it would be good if county residents at least would respond.

This consultation needs to be seen as part of the wider picture, for instance:

·         Peat.  One of the excuses for continued peat use is the lack of volume of the alternatives.  With District Councils in the county charging up to £55/year for green waste collection we have a disincentive for people to treat their green waste responsibly and a great incentive to add it to the black (general waste) bin.  What we really need is for councils to stop charging for green waste and proactively seek it out to turn it into compost as a peat replacement and exploit the commercial opportunity, if people don't have a home compost heap.  This aspect gets little attention in the consultation.

·         Air pollution. Landfill sites emit methane as materials rot down.  Methane is a greenhouse gas over 20 times as harmful as CO2, so allowing landfill sites to emit it is increasing climate change. With the current issues with fossil fuel prices we need to be capturing methane and using it, a win-win commercially and environmentally.  At its worst, methane leakage can affect nearby buildings, Huncote Leisure centre being a local example of how to get it wrong, see Huncote Leisure Centre to stay shut for longer over methane risk - BBC News

·         Zero emission waste trucks. While we all want to see less HGVs on our roads, we are going to be stuck with refuse trucks for the foreseeable future.  A commitment to explore more environmentally friendly refuse collection trucks would be welcome, as is already happening in Aberdeen, see Aberdeen City Council adds UK's first hydrogen fuel cell waste truck to the fleet | Aberdeen City Council which would reduce emissions and costs, long term.

With all these things we need the council to be innovative and live up to the old phrase “where there’s muck there’s brass”, because we have plenty of muck to make brass from. 

Please respond to the consultation and encourage Leicestershire to think about where waste services fit in the bigger picture.

Government peat consultation – please respond!

 The government is consulting (yet again!) on ending peat sales, the previous voluntary approach having completely failed.  The reason for another consultation appears to be the claim that there is not enough volume of the alternatives.

The government consultation asks 27 questions and closes on the 18^th March.  Paul de Zylva, of National FoE has produced a briefing document detailing the background behind the consultation and suggested answers to the 27 questions for people to use. 

As well as Paul’s document we should be considering using a levy on peat sales to fund more green waste recycling locally, including removing the disincentive that is charging for green bin emptying. There is a real opportunity for more proactive local green waste handling that would address what appears to be the primary concern of insufficient peat replacement volume.  Also we need to highlight the continued commercial extraction of peat for burning, as per this example and this one, which is particularly frustrating given the availability of alternatives - this needs banning now, if we are in a climate emergency.

Responding to the government consultation requires a considerable effort so the Wildlife Trusts have provided a simplified way for people to respond to the consultation.

The government consultation mentions the Responsible Sourcing Scheme, a useful website where peat alternatives for different uses can be searched and filtered, a must for any eco-conscious gardener that doesn’t have their own compost heap.  For each peat alternative listed there is a rating on the environmental impact of its production.  Whilst this looks to be a work in progress it is a step in the right direction.

To keep in touch with peat campaigning don’t forget to be part of Leicester is no place for peat, on Facebook and when buying compost please check the small print for where it is sourced from.

Peat Conservation

This might be of interest to anyone teaching about climate change in schools. Having taught this to a Year 9 class it was surprising how little they knew about peat.

The lesson began telling students that a peat bog is a carbon sink – meaning it stores carbon. It is made up of partly rotted organic material which builds up and becomes peat. Peat bogs are helping to counter climate change in that they soak up the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Bogs are also very important for biodiversity. Peat is a fossil fuel and traditionally has been used as a fuel and is now used on a commercial scale by garden centres selling bags of compost with peat in and also in plants potted up in peat-based compost for selling.

There are many other abuses of peat bogs such as overgrazing, people walking on them and inappropriate burning which causes destruction of plant species and peat structure. Also, when peat is cut for commercial use, it dries out – when it dries it releases the carbon stored back into the atmosphere.

There is a very good slideshow which can be used to educate children or adults. If this is shown in school it might also help schools to realise why they should be using peat free compost themselves in any school planting projects which they might be doing.

In school we then made posters asking people to use peat free compost and put them up in our school windows.

It is a good time of year (as the growing season approaches) to be raising awareness of the value of leaving peat in the ground and demanding that Garden Centre’s only sell peat free compost.

If we don’t buy it – they can’t sell it!

Leicester & Leicestershire Peat-Free List

Since launching our 'Leicester is No Place for Peat' campaign, we have been encouraging individuals to pledge to only use peat-free compost. We have also been contacting organisations and asking them to take the same pledge. We are now ready to reveal our list of peat-free places in Leicester and Leicestershire! This will be updated regularly as more organisations pledge to go peat-free. To help our peat-free friends, we're also compiling a list of where to buy peat-free compost locally. If you know of a shop or an organisation that should be included on our list, please contact us.

Peat-Free Places and Organisations

Avenue Primary School, Leicester

Brooke House School, Cosby, Leicestershire

Brookside Primary School, Oadby, Leicestershire

Graceworks Community Garden, Evington, Leicester

Granby Primary School, Leicester

Leicester City Council (all gardens)

Manor High School, Oadby, Leicestershire

Overdale Infants School, Leicester

Overdale Junior School, Leicester

University of Leicester

Woodland Grange Primary School, Oadby, Leicestershire

 

Peat-Free Compost Suppliers

Most big chain stores selling garden supplies will have at least one brand of peat-free compost, although you may need to check labels carefully to find it!

Attfields Farm Shop, Cosby, Leicestershire

Coles Nursery, Thurnby, Leicestershire

Co-op supermarkets 

For a full list of peat-free compost brands and peat-free nurseries across the UK, check out Dogwooddays’ list. The nearest peat-free nursery is Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, which only grow using peat-free compost. You can order from them online and plants will arrive in cardboard packaging.

Peat-free gardening concerns and peat-free posters

Since starting the ‘Leicester is no place for peat’ campaign, we’ve heard a few concerns about gardening without using peat. I wanted to take this opportunity to respond to those. 

Quite a few of us in Leicester Friends of the Earth are keen gardeners so we can talk from experience. I’ve got a garden and an allotment. I’ve had my allotment for just over 10 years and I grow vegetables and soft fruit there. In my garden, I grow herbs and flowers in the borders and salad leaves in containers. 

My sister helping with re-potting

Plants grown in peat-free compost at my allotment

Here are my responses to the concerns we’ve heard: 

“It's difficult to find peat-free compost / plants in shops”

You do have to shop carefully if you’re trying to avoid peat because compost and plants grown using peat won’t usually be labelled. You have to look for products specifically labelled ‘peat-free’. There is a handy list of peat-free compost brands to look out for and nurseries that sell plants grown in peat-free compost on the DogwoodDays blog – you might want to bookmark it! Unfortunately, none of the nurseries are close to Leicester but most sell online. If you visit a garden centre and you can’t tell whether plants are grown in peat-free compost, ask! It will help garden centres to move towards being peat-free if they understand that there is a demand for it. 

“Peat-free compost is expensive”

The price of compost does vary but the peat-free compost I buy from my local hardware shop is the same price as the high-peat brand. I think it might be a complete myth that peat-free is more expensive. Peat does of course also have an enormous environmental cost; extracting it destroys valuable wildlife habitat and contributes to climate change. So if ever you’re tempted by a cheap peat-based compost, remember that you’re not paying the real price! The cheapest compost of all, of course, is garden compost, so make sure that you’re composting your green waste at home – the RHS have useful advice about how to start composting. 

“Peat-free compost is too coarse for seeds”

I grow nearly all of my plants (vegetables, flowers and herbs) from seed in shop-bought peat-free compost mixed with garden compost. I tend to use the same brand (New Horizon), because that seems to be most widely available near to where I live. However, there are several different brands and I’ve spoken to friends who use other brands with similar results. I never have any problems growing seeds. There are sometimes small pieces of woody material in peat-free compost, just as there are in my garden compost. I pick out any larger pieces as I’m sowing seeds but the smaller pieces don’t seem to cause any problems. I think the idea that seed compost has to be very fine comes from old gardening books – in my experience, it isn’t true! 

The other thing to remember is that peat itself does not contain the nutrients that growing plants need – it has to be added artificially to peat-based composts. Whereas garden compost and peat-free compost you buy in the shops is full of plant nutrients, just as nature intended. 

If you have any other concerns about gardening without peat, please leave a comment below or get in touch – we’d be happy to talk about this further.

 

If you’ve gone peat-free and you’re trying to persuade friends and neighbours to join you, we now have peat-free posters available! Please feel free to download and print. The two hand-drawn posters were designed by pupils at Brooke House Day School in Cosby, who have been learning about peat in their climate literacy lessons.

 

 

 

Leicester is No Place for Peat

At our last meeting, we decided to run a 'Peat Free' campaign. We discussed peat being used as a growing medium in bags of compost sold at garden centres and the lesser known facts about peat locking away carbon and keeping it out of our atmosphere. 

Over the last 10,000 years, UK peatlands have sequestered 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon - nearly 40 times the amount of carbon stored in our woodlands. Peatlands contain about half of the UK's stored carbon. Globally, peatlands store about half a trillion tonnes of carbon, trapping organic matter underwater. Unfortunately, digging up the peat enables oxygen to get to it, so the organic matter starts to decay, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The environmental damage caused by extracting peat for compost is immense. It releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Peat bogs are also excellent areas of biodiversity, so peat extraction contributes to habitat and species loss. 

In 2011 the government published a White Paper with targets for the end of peat use in horticulture. The aim of this was for all compost available to amateur gardeners to be peat-free by 2020. Unfortunately, the targets were voluntary and most garden centres chose to ignore the issue and still sell bags of compost containing peat. 

So, we are asking garden centres to reconsider selling peat.  Our ask is that people visit their local garden centre and see what they are selling, then send them a letter (as we cannot face to face campaign at the moment), requesting them to reconsider their position. A copy of a standard letter is available on Google Docs.  If you do send a letter perhaps you can let us know in the comments below so that we can keep a record. 

There is also another letter for people to send to schools to ask them to go peat free if they buy compost for any gardening projects. We have already had one positive response from a school. Let us know if you get any more - then we can add their name onto our list. Here is the link to Google docs.

Also, we are asking people to pledge to buy peat free themselves. The pledge can be found at  https://actionnetwork.org/forms/pledge-to-use-peat-free-compost. Facebook users can also sign up to our Facebook group to share information about peat-free gardening.

This is the beginning of our campaign, as, hopefully, COVID restrictions get lifted we hope to step up the 'Leicester is No Place for Peat' campaign.  Watch this space......!