When you’re writing a book there are half a dozen times you think you’re done. You hand over the whole thing, in one great wodge, and breathe a sigh of relief. What follows though, is a frenzied month of bits and bobs – mostly tweaks to ensure sections are not ending halfway down a page, that the balance of images across the book works well etc, before it goes to the editor. The editor is the person who takes your words and puts order the right in them.
I take most of the photos in the books I write, so when there are a few extras needed to punctuate the lines of genius (thank you, editor) I have to get out there with the camera. Horse poo, creme de cassis and blueberries this week. I’ll spare you the horse poo. The blueberry pages have space for another image to go with the fruiting one, so, when they have such amazing flowers, I thought I’d take one while they’re in blossom.
Blueberries are as beautiful as they are delicious – later in the year when the fruit comes along, check out the base of the fruit where the blossom formed, away from the stem. This lazily lobed, five-pointed star on each fruit was seen by Native Americans as a sign that the Great Spirit had sent ‘starberries’ to ease hunger in times of famine. They make a mighty fine muffin too. Now’s the time they’re in flower. Go and buy a plant or two right now.
They like growing in acid conditions, so if you’re growing them in pots it’s best to use ericaceous compost and to water them with rain water as it’s mildly acidic. I had no ericaceous compost to top dress these potted blueberries so Homebase (it’s near) were lucky enough to get my custom earlier in the week. I noticed Jamie Oliver has a range of grow your own stuff out – seeds, compost and all that. And for some reason I lifted up one of his growbags to have a look at what was in it. There was no ingredients list, just an indication of the peat content: 60%. I’m still not sure I’ve read that right…60%…so I will check before I publish this*.
I came home, took the blueberry picture and slunk into the bath. I have a stack of magazines (pipe down, not that kind) just inside my office, that I never get around to reading. I grabbed the top one, the latest Gardeners World magazine. All fine, until I got to the last page. Alan Titchmarsh, much loved, highly experienced and very influential gardener excusing us gardeners and growers who use peat.
The combination of Jamie O and Alan T promoting peat got me all righteous and boring – I grizzled on like I grizzle at the TV when watching Question Time. Then I wrote a really boring and self-righteous blog. This is my attempt to make it less so – I don’t think I’ve succeeded, so you might want to look at the pictures and go make yourself a nice cup of tea instead.
The reason I got all worked up is because Jamie O and Alan T aren’t the usual muppets: these are two of the good guys, both highly influential and rightly appreciated for promoting positive stuff. People listen to what they have to say.
Peat usually forms in wet areas when plants and fungi, with a few animals thrown in, are prevented from decomposing completely by acidic and/or anaerobic conditions. It accumulates rapidly when conditions are very wet, less so in drier times. Its character reflects the conditions in which it was laid down – it becomes a prime indicator of historic climatic conditions as well as providing a window into the local ecology of the time. It is a subterranean museum.
Give it a few extra millions years and peat often develops into coal. It is full of carbon, which makes it a valuable fuel in some parts of the world – more importantly peat is a valuable carbon sink, locking up carbon at a time when our atmosphere needs it sequestered. Allow peat to dry out or dig it up and it ceases to be a carbon sink, it becomes an emitter – a cause of climate change.
This isn’t a minor issue – it is estimated that, globally, peat stores around twice the carbon that forests do. If Alan T and Jamie O were cutting down the rainforest to line their pockets or raise a few tricky ornamental plants there’d be an outcry.
You might think what we gardeners and growers do is inconsequential in the wider scheme of things: not so. We amateur gardeners use way more peat than anyone else – around 2 million cubic metres of peat a year, or 3 billion litres if you prefer. It has been conservatively estimated that banning it’s use in gardening compost would save the equivalent amount in carbon emissions as taking 350,000 cars off the road. Or taking all the motorcycles and mopeds off the road.
We have already accounted for 94% of the UKs lowland raised bogs. The government response: Hillary Benn announced a plan to phase out the use of peat by amateur gardeners by 2020. Not especially dynamic or responsible, especially when you look back to 1999 when the government announced it would eliminate peat from all but 10 per cent of compost by 2010 – it is still present in 46 per cent of the compost sold in Britain.
Peat isn’t fertile in itself, but it has the rather handy property of retaining moisture when there is little about and holding on to any excess so that roots don’t rot when conditions are overly wet. There’s an impression perpetuated that nothing compares to peat. This may have something to do with peat being comparatively cheap for commercial growers. Which? commissioned trials in March 2010 that showed peat-free composts outperforming the best peat-based composts. So we can put that one to bed.
Yet Alan T won’t use coir based composts in preference to peat: “those based on coir have, I reckon, used up too many air miles”. This is the sentence – and especially the ‘I reckon’ – that gives me hope: Alan T must be getting poorly advised because in the context of peat and coir the concept of air miles is a red herring.
We are fed air miles as a handy index of a product’s carbon footprint but it can be highly misleading. British tomatoes, for example, grown in heated greenhouses have used far more energy and consequently have far greater embedded carbon than Spanish tomatoes grown in the sun and shipped or even flown to us. The only relevant number is the total carbon consumed in the whole process of production rather than the number of miles travelled.
Coir is the outer husk of a coconut. The long fibres go to make coconut matting but the finer covering was incinerated (releasing carbon) before it started being used in compost. Having been stripped from the coconut (and washed to remove salt if grown in coastal areas), the coir is dried and highly compacted, minimising its weight and volume before being shipped. A full 40ft cube container will take 4400 coir bales weighing 5kg each, which when hydrated expands to almost 300,000 litres of coir. It’s a very efficient system that minimises the energy required to transport it.
Once here, containers are loaded onto lorries and dispatched to depots and stores around the country: a highly inefficient system. So inefficient that (per tonne) more fuel is used to move the coir around once it reaches these shores than it does to ship it here from Asia.
Only around 40% of the peat we use comes from these shores, around half from Ireland and the rest from Europe. Peat is weighty and mostly transported by lorry at a huge carbon cost.
Air miles, air schmiles.
I’m not sure Gardener’s World would have run Alan T’s article if he had advocated slashing down rainforests so gardeners could grow a few delicate plants a little more reliably. Carbon-wise, using peat is worse. And I haven’t got stuck into the wildlife, ecosystem and habitat issues – I’ll leave someone else to be dull about that.
I can only assume Gardener’s World and Alan T didn’t know the whole picture.
It’s hard to disagree with some of the sentiment of the column – many gardeners and growers do much to enhance our biodiversity – but if we want that to be taken seriously we can’t ignore our responsibilities.
Alan T’s garden is ‘teeming with moths, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, and all kinds of other organisms that I cannot see’. So is mine and I’m not half the gardener Alan T is. I also never use peat. I don’t think it’s ok for us to say that because our garden ‘contributes to the greater good’ that we can contribute to the far greater bad because a few delicate princesses might not take to coir. If they won’t grow in something other than peat, let’s not grow them – garden biodiversity won’t be compromised one jot.
It is us, you and I, not the big commercial boys, who account for three quarters of peat consumed. We needn’t.
I’ve gone on too long, as ever, but I have nothing better to do.
It is deeply boring to wave a flag saying “Please Don’t” on it. I try not to but once in a while you should. Many are doing it and not all are boringly worthy individuals who are certified organic, are climate change activists, knit their own yoghurt and cycle to work on a tandem. Of the many, Kew have long supported peat-free growing, as have Monty and the National Trust and last time I looked their gardens were quite good.
I’m still surprised that Jamie O and Alan T are promoting something so at odds with what they usually stand for, especially when there are a fine alternatives out there. It must be because they are being poorly advised or are unaware of the implications of using peat.
I hope, if they knew the facts, they’d agree.
*I checked: it is.
*I think I should be awarded bonus points for not writing ‘For Peat’s Sake’ anywhere.
Hoorah! I dont use peat based compost but it has taken me a while to find a make of peat free compost that works well and doesnt dry out too quickly and is easy to re-wet. I tend to go for ones with wood by products rather than coir – even less air/ship whatever miles.
I do think that the problem with the whole environmental/sustainable issue is who shouts loudest. The media is hugely responsible for over promoting ideas. Take the whole palm-oil business which has caused mass deforestation but was seen as the alternative to petrol. As with so many things in life I think we need to not take everything at face value and to make sure we are properly informed.
I have to say that I am surprised the horticultural trade dont use more peat based compost than amateurs have the majority changed their ways?
A good and not boring post
PS – what is the pink flower?
AND the latest Gardening Which? trial has a peat-free compost as one of its two best buys (New Horizon Multi Purpose).
AND I seem to remember that in a previous trial they found that although seedlings fared marginally better in peat-based composts, long-term plantings fared worse. It gets dried out. You can't re-wet it. It's rubbish.
There's really no excuse. Well wrote. I think you have been supremely polite about them both.
We have been trying hard to use only peat free for a few years & totally agree with your rantings, particularly with regard to people of some influence who ought to know better. Some of the peat free compost is total pants & I am sure will put off some gardeners. We use the New Horizon but I do tend to add 'stuff' to it to help it along.
BTW for my sins I worked at a peat bog as a student job one summer. It was back breaking work stacking peat 'bricks' to dry. It was a very long time ago & I was young & ignorant!
Good article Mark.
Re: 'for peat's sake' – At the last, you blew it.
Good one Marc.
As a commercial grower supplying the Nat Trust we do not use peat and have not done so since the early 90's.Many growers whinge on about the alternatives not having the 'quality' .
Crap ! The only difference in any compost is in the management of the plant therein. Compost is a vehicle to carry the nutrient and anchor the root-period.
Well said Mark. You would think the case for not using peat was sufficiently well proved by now. Yet I am sure we all know plenty of people who would claim to be environmentally, eco/wildlife friendly who still use peat.
I've been using the Which-recommended peat-free best buy for years adding sharp sand or vermiculite, etc depending on what I'm trying to grow and am happy with the results I get.
The real point here though is that individual action is so important. How else can we expect politicians and business to take heed unless as consumers we are applying the pressure? So please urge everyone you know to stop using peat – it costs the earth in so many ways.
What can I say? I use 25,000 litres of peat-free compost every year at the nursery (commercial New Horizon). It costs me 10p per litre compared with 8p per litre of the standard stuff. Tuppence a plant. Everyone comments on how healthy our plants look.
I can't grow in peat now. It shrinks, dries, or gets soggy. And anyway, I just won't.
Bother. Had been planning a 'peat's sake' comment until I got to the end and, wham, there it was. My enthusiasm completely petered out #lame
Doesn't BAland Titchmarsh have form for this sort of thing?
Didn't he come out with a load of climate-change-denying guff a while back?
Seeing as I work at a garden centre as a compost lad (I literally just load bags of compost into cars for people as a part time job) I know how much peat based compost people buy. We stock the peat free varieties of compost as well though and I reckon we sell about 1 bag every 2 saturdays. It's because it's way more expensive than peat based compost which has endless offers placed on it, 2 for 3, 3 for £11 etc. The most popular compost (at the garden centre I work at) has just converted to a reduced peat content, it's a start if nothing else.
It's great to hear you find our research so useful. We test compost every year – we planted up over 500 pots for our container compost trial alone! We've have good results for peat-free for growing plants in containers and have a peat-free Best Buy but unfortunately we haven't found a Best Buy for seed sowing or young plants as yet. We wait to see what the manufacturers develop.
I too couldn't quite believe AT had written that article. Poor advice from somebody so influential to a lot of people.
PG – its a rubus spectabilis
LL – the first version was less polite, but me mum brought me up right
MsB – I think adding stuff (vermiculite, sand etc) to help it along is what many people do with any compost these days…and most people are surpsied to hear that peat is virtually nutrient free anyway – it's just a water-retaining, non-waterlogging vehicle for carrying added nutrients
Chris – it is about COST – and the real cost of peat is huge. It's around 1-2p a litre more for peat free – so commercial growers can just round up that £4.99 plant to a fiver – Im sure their businesses won't fail because of that. And, as I mentioned, the starting point has to be different: we wouldn't be able to burn down the rain forest to grow some nice little border plants so why peat?
Dan – 'At the last, I blew it' is, a motto I borrowed from an old girlfriend
Truffles1 – thank you, v good to hear first hand experience
The BC – Hi Jacqui, nice to 'see' you. Fascinating place to live – don't try almonds there though…small scale fuel cutting for domestic use is tiny tiny potatoes compared to the horticultural industry though. Glad you liked the post
deborah – v true about individual action
polyalida – yes indeedy, rubus spectabilis
sue – fantastic to hear how easy it is to be peat-free from someone who does it on your scale, thank you
Jo – I can always delete it and leave you the opportunity…
BL – I have a distant memory of something like that…
JtheS – V interesting – the big boys have their hands all over the peat and can chuck it out at silly prices – it's the garden equivalent of the £3 chicken
Ceri – fascinating, and thank you for all the valuable work you do. My worry is that people still come at this from a strange starting point – that theyll carry on using peat until forced not to. There is nothnig I have found imnpossible to grow in peat free – same for Sue (see her comment above) and she's growing many ornamenals at the nursery scale. It's simply unnecessary to use peat
Janet/Damo – Totally agree. Most of us havent the time or inclination to research the whole thing – we have lives to lead – so when someone like Alan T talks about it you assume he knows his facts…
Here you go:
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2009/12/08/mad-mels-list-of-sceptical-climate-related-scientists/
Doesn't ericaceous compost contain peat? Or has it been acidified in some other way? In other words, can one get peat-free ericaceous compost?
Our soil is neutral or a weeny bit limey, so I don't grow blueberries, or any other lime-haters. And I hadn't considered trying them in pots because of the necessity for peat. If I can grow them in pots without peat, I'd be keen to try.
GB – thank you…
OBR – Some does, but Homebase ericaceous doesnt..
Nice post. It's possible to grow perfectly good plants without peat, it doesn't cost massively more, it doesn't take more effort to get plants to grow, as organisations like NT have demonstrated for some time now.
Alan T and Jamie O should be ashamed of themselves! Maybe a email/Twitter campaign would get at least the latter to change his mind, Alan is obviously stuck in his ways?
Plants can grow without peat but it is better to have peat on it to grow healthier and faster.
FiL – According to many nursery growers who know far more than I (eg Jekka, Sue Beasley) that isnt the case
Writing from Australia here. Love your blog and the tv programme. Haven't seen the book tho'. I realise this blog is a over amonth old, but just wanted to add my 5cents worth… Over here, if you need peat for ferns, etc we have a product called coir peat which is made from recycled cocnut husks. It is sold in a briquette, which expands to approx 50lites when 5 – 10 litres of water is applied. it is addeed to potting mix, used as compost or mulch, hanging basket liner and nest building material by the little native birds in my suburb. Can you source this product in the UK if peat is such a big problem? It is quite cheap, less than 5 pounds (Au 8 dollars), to purchase. And, it makes a useful product out of something that would be normally thrown away or burnt as rubbish. Cheers B!
Late on the scene too, but another plus point for coir – it doesn't stain your nails like peat does. Bit of a girly excuse, but if you have a day job outside of gardening, you need your manicure to be more Fragrant Rachel than Lovely Carol.
For ericaceous beds, we use leaf mould. Our allotments back on to ancient Oak woods, and we try to gather the leaves in our street before the council do. (We're in a cul de sac, so not too polluted).
Ikea have started selling coir bricks recently, which is handy. And if you have semi tame toddlers in the garden, reconstituting coir bricks requires far less cleaning up than other growing media.
Very nice photo apart from the first one…