Bunny explains her reasons for opposing the UK Government’s current proposal to ban peat in retail compost by 2024 and throughout the whole of the UK horticultural industry by 2029.
UK horticulture – both commercial and domestic – accounts for a MINISCULE 0.053% of total peat use in the UK.
But before your raise your spades in anger, Bunny IS a peat hugger – she just backs a postponement of the ban so that the UK horticultural industry – and all UK gardeners – can compeat (!) on a level playing field with our European competitors……Just until a suitable alternative to peat can be found.
Bunny explains why peat substitutes, such as coir, aren’t the eco answer many people think they are, why peat is so very special when it comes to sowings, cuttings & potting on – and why finding a suitable alternative takes time and money. She also gives us some staggering stats. on the use of peat.
Bunny’s braced for impact but determined to put the case, as have many revered and well-known horticulturists throughout the country.
#uk #gardening #deprived
33 Comments
Many things to think about. It is never as simple to solve most problems as simple people would narrowmindely argue. I agree you shouldn't cripple gardeners before providing a sensible realistic usable alternative. Informative, thank you.
Profoundly ignorant and selfish 🙁
I have seen the pillaging of Irish Peat bogs in my youth. Otherwise know as the moss. These are ecosystems we should be leaving in peace for all our sakes and the sakes of all our children. If you want an alternative Johnson-su compost is the future is even restoring semi arid desertified soils in the US. Results are stunning. Fungal dominant soils and composts are the future NOT PEAT!!
Nothing wrong with using peat!
Too many good doers nowadays.
Ban this ban that let's ban everything.
Banning peat will do nothing.
Russia has contributed more to global warming in the last week than peat harvesting will.! End of!
another bout of madness. The European horticultural industry will be very grateful.
Peat bogs absorb far more Co2 than forests and we are losing both.
I shan't lose any sleep knowing that the potted plant industry has been deprived of peat especially given that millions of potted plants are thrown away or die in the course of their lives with the added complication of what to do with the billlions of plastic pots.
I dont agree Bunny. Peat has to go. It needed to be abandoned ten years ago but better late than never.
Sorry Bunny, but you’re wrong. Kew has been peat free since 1997. We only use it for growing bog plants. Studies done there showed coir actually holds and retains more moisture. The Hort industry has had years to plan for this change. Plus, a lot of our peat is imported from Eastern Europe, where peat lands are in serious decline.
So disappointed by your stance Bunny. The bigger picture is more important. We can garden and wonderful results using compost and not destroying our environment. We are gardeners, shouldn’t we be making the earth better?
Congratulations! Finally someone who has got balls to tell the truth! Best video so far Bunny!!
So you explain how the little damage is limited and mitigated by the way the industry works and get a load of comments that ignore your arguments and the facts. <Sigh> I suppose all these people blame farmers for climate change too. Perhaps when they stop taking holidays abroad, driving cars and heating their homes I'll have more respect for their opinions.
This is such a sad video. It’s hard to see someone who can’t let go of antiquated “traditions” even if it’s at the detriment to us all.
I have an allotment and have tried the alternatives. I am 100% with Bunny Guinness on this and when there is a suitable alternative I will happily use it, it has to be a) competitive, b) effective. I have lost far too many plants due to the effects of Clopyralid from lawn mowings brought in through careless gardeners sending this for waste recycling after spraying their lawns with this poison. Coir is one suggested alternative, but it loses water from the compost mix so quickly I end up having to water 2 or even 3 times a day. I'm all for managed peat use and have no intention of changing – there are sources around both commercially and black market if you care to look and as the ban comes in the black market will only increase. Managed peat use is the only way to go.
I support you Bunny. It is not known if some of the imported choices from Asia are not worse for the environment, and are at all the natural choice. Peat is a good thing, and that is why some of the peat bogs needed to be saved when they were threatened with environmental ruin, however, peat farming would seem to be an important choice, that has not been made. Peat farming needs to be tried, and it is such a benefit in itself, that it should not cause any harm. The fact that so much of the basis for horticulture depends on peat for growing new plants in the nursery and early in planting results in so many green plants being able to survive, and be affordable for sale. No one will be going in and cutting the protected peat bogs, everyone knows not to do that by now and there is no excuse, UK gardeners should not have to wonder if they are getting peat from these locations, but maybe a new farmed peat industry needs a little help. Truly, the Canadian farmed peat "certified as farmed" would be a better choice, clearly marked so people feel like they will not be bullied for using it, than suspicious materials from Asia. The trip to UK is shorter, as well. What if peat were plentiful and people didn't have to pretend they were not using it to save face?
Please KNOW the history here and how this product came about…I'm I. Favor of banning it.
Peat free is responsible for the rising cost of plants. There is no substitute for peat. Other than Oak or beech leafmould.
Back to loam is okay. But say using a John Innes mix of 7 loam, 2 river sand an
then it still needs 3 peat.
I remember the introduction of the first soiless compost – Levington in 1965. That was what started the usage of peat.
So instead of 3 x parts of peat out of 12. It was now 12 x parts of peat.
Of course I see nothing wrong with a 7-2-3 mix of John Innes using only 3 parts peat.
But like my local Councillors in regard to our Parks – the government take any populist idea. Especially if it comes from a jeweller TV presenter/pundit.
Troule is i cant seem to find any compost with peat in ? UK
I stopped using peat compost years ago and I can’t say I noticed much difference. I’m in Wales where we have no problems with soil/compost retaining water! It rains nearly every day!
Spot on. So much peat is squandered because in the general public are never educated in how to use it. Peat is NOT a quick route to a good crop or a healthy pot plant – if you've ever visited a peat bog you might have noticed that almost nothing grows – they are bleak sterile and water logged. That's what can happen when you don't realise its purpose is to improve water retention when added to soil that is too sandy or fast draining (such as most peat-free composts!). We should have better education not more ignorant laws.
https://youtu.be/6isd5xy4Z2M
Shame you can’t delay climate change while people drag their feet and continue to use peat. Nothing wrong with using a good plant compost.
Oh, c'mon. There are substitutes available – they are simply more expensive. That's really what the 'concern' is all about. The nonsense that you have to water much more is just that – nonsense. Especially in a desert area like Great Britain…
I have been growing and propagating rare plants for many years. Absolutely yes, it is more difficult to propagate some plants without peat, and virtually impossible with some plants that come from bogs. I'm also vegan, so I need to avoid animal product-based peat alternatives, limiting me further. Having said all of that, I don't believe in gardening in a way that destroys nature, especially when growing plants only for their ornament value. I would not be able to enjoy my garden or plants knowing that to grow them I have poisoned wildlife or deprived wild animals or future generations of such rare and unique natural wonders as bog. I find destructive, unsustainable gardening practices selfish, short-sighted, and outdated. I have to say that I find this to be a generational debate, as older gardeners seem to have grown up in a world where knowingly poisoning wildlife was justified in the interest of having an immaculate lawn or monoculture flowerbeds of spotless (absolutely hideous) hybrid tea roses.
Thank you for this, it was an education in the absurdity of this ban, and really helped me in formulating my own irreverent video on the subject.
Peat Bogs & Wet Lands Store More Carbon Than The Amazon Rain Forests – https://youtu.be/lLcu-d1cQSA
Overe here, peatmoss is practicly gone from the stores, and that was since 2000, so I dont understand why UK would still cling to it when it is clearly possible to find an alternative.
You need Pete. I noticed many people lost there plants last year when this was pushed out last year. One nursery lost an entire stock of plants.
I's worth getting another perspective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4_BbOC6ZVQ
Thank for your honest appraisal concerning Peat. I believe that uses a very small of the peat lands available and then reseeds the area that was cultivated. I believe the alternative lies within trees either composted wood, or bark.
It takes 1 year for peat bogs to accrue 1mm in peat from rotting moss. Think how much peat is in a bag of peat-based compost, until recently around 60%. Thats a huge area of peat bog. I don't know where 'Bunny' gets her figures from but obviously supplied by the commercial 'compost' industry and NOT environmental scientists! Excellent results are possible from peat free compost but unfortunately the 'industry' has been incredibly slow in developing good products. Us conscientious gardeners have been using peat-free for years and have had to find out for ourselves that most products are awful. This drivel makes about as much sense as 'clean' coal or sustainable biomass burning for energy. Total greenwash bollocks!!
I cannot take advice from anyone who pronounces 'plaaastic'. Her generation has sat on their fat investments whilst the planet burns for too long! Move over, move on and get out of the way.
If the government bans then question it !they don’t care about people or the environment!! If Sea moss is great for our health then why wouldn’t peat moss not be good for the plants ? Question it . Anything that benefits us the government Intervenes !
ive beeen no dig perma culture for 10 years and make 100% of my own compost , this is backwords growing and reminds me that when slavery ended there was people like you out defending it lol
Well said!
They want to ban peat to increase reliance on chemical fertilisers and GMO’s