Unless you’ve been living in a hole in the ground for the last few years, you’ll know that using peat-based products in your garden is decimating peatlands throughout the UK and beyond.
Peatlands provide vital habitats for wildlife, store greenhouse gases and release thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. However, peat is used in compost and soil improvers because it’s light, retains moisture and stores nutrients. It’s also very cheap.
In an effort to raise awareness and encourage gardeners to choose peat-free alternatives, leading organic growing charity Garden Organic has launched its ‘I Don’t Dig Peat’ campaign, to put an end the 24 million wheelbarrows of peat which its experts estimate is being used unnecessarily by British gardeners each year.
Gardeners’ World presenter Alys Fowler, who is fronting the campaign, says: “Whether people think peat is the best option depends on if they’ve experimented with going peat-free.
“Increasingly, those who go peat-free and get hold of good quality compost find there’s no argument. I don’t use any peat-based compost and I see no difference. I grow fantastic vegetables.
“If you were trying to grow peat bog plants, there’s an argument that growing them in peat is sensible, but the amount of people growing peat bog plants is tiny. What’s happening is that a lot of people are using peat – up to 70% peat in some multi-purpose composts – for growing, say, tomatoes. But tomatoes don’t need peat to grow.”
Fowler uses her council’s green waste compost, called ‘Care compost’, sold at her local garden centre, along with peat-free multi-purposes from Carbon Gold, New Horizon and Vital Earth.
“If your council is making green waste, phone their refuse department which should be able to tell you where to buy it. It’s incredibly cheap,” she suggests.
Historically, peat-free composts have been criticised for being inferior for seed-sowing. A Which? Gardening report from the Consumers’ Association magazine noted earlier this year: “Our trial results show that peat-free composts still have a way to go to match the performance of peat for sowing seeds and growing on young plants – although the picture is rosier for container composts.”
However, some peat-based composts are just as inferior as their peat-free counterparts, says Ceri Thomas, editor of Which? Gardening.
“Gardeners shouldn’t assume that all compost is the same. Whether peat-free or peat-based, the quality of compost varies massively.
“Our trials found that it is possible to buy a good quality peat-free compost that performs as well as the best peat-based compost. But there are also a number of peat-based and peat-free composts that simply don’t match these high standards.”
In its latest trial, Which? Gardening recommends New Horizon Organic & Peat Free Growbag for sowing seeds. Germination rates for basil were on a par with its ‘Best Buy’ peat-based compost and the quality of the resulting seedlings was good.
New Horizon Organic & Peat Free multi-purpose compost (£5.99 for 60 litres) was a ‘Best Buy’ container compost for the second consecutive year, outperforming seven peat-based composts, including three specific container ones, to come joint top.
Fowler says: “This campaign is saying, think about it. There’s no need to dig up one part of the world to grow something in your back garden.
“Many people are coming into gardening through the ‘grow your own’ trend, because of health and environmental reasons. It would be sad to take a step backwards by using composting material which is not sustainable, when actually peat-free is getting better and better.”
If you want to go peat-free, avoid buying and using soil improvers as most of these contain peat, Garden Organic advises. Use products such as manure and leafmould to improve your soil instead.
Start making home compost and buy fewer bedding plants, switching to perennials which grow year after year, meaning you reduce the peat-grown plants you bring into the garden and the need to replant each year.
Search online for nurseries or mail order stores selling peat-free plants and support their peat-free initiatives.
Sometimes the good peat-free composts will be slightly pricier, Fowler concedes, but it’s a small price to pay for saving the earth.
“It’s worth paying a couple of pennies more to ensure a much more secure future for our wider environment, biodiversity and habitat,” she says.
For more information on the campaign and to pledge not to use peat, go to www.idontdigpeat.org.uk
Best of the bunch – Verbena bonariensis
Most verbenas are used as annuals, adding a burst of colour in pots and cascading over hanging baskets in the summer months.
However, some are more hardy including V. bonariensis, a tall, wiry plant which can reach 1.5-1.8m (5-6ft) and has an airy appearance because its long slim stems and small leaves allow you to look through it to the plants beyond.
With its deep lilac-purple flowers which can last until the autumn, its see-through qualities make it perfect for planting en masse in a sunny border, with hemerocallis, lavandula, achillea and Echinacea purpurea. It’s also a magnet to butterflies.
Like all verbenas, it needs to be grown in full sun in well-drained soil, with added sharp drainage. It can be cut down to within 30cm (12in) of the ground and will survive short periods of frost and snow in winter.
Good enough to eat – Runner bean problems
If your runner beans don’t have many flowers on them it may be you’ve applied too much fertiliser and/or water at the wrong time, which will result in plenty of healthy leaves but not many flowers. Cold and windy weather can also stop bees from pollinating the crop.
The right time to water beans is when they are flowering and when the pods are swelling. You don’t need to water the young plants profusely until flowering starts, because watering consistently throughout the plant’s life will just fuel stem and leaf growth, but little else.
The secret is to plant them in fertile soil that doesn’t dry out easily, preparing the ground beforehand by digging in plenty of well-rotted organic matter.
Once they are flowering, plants can be watered twice a week, directing the flow at the base of the plants. New research shows that applying water to the roots in the evening increases cropping and pod set.
If your leaves are showing small brown spots surrounded by a yellow ‘halo’, the plants may have the disease halo blight, which results in the pods developing water-soaked spots. Prevent the problem by never soaking the seeds before sowing and use a resistant variety such as ‘Red Rum’. Pick off infected leaves when you see them, or pull out and bin affected plants.
Three ways to… Keep containers happy in summer
1. Choose bigger containers as they don’t dry out as quickly as smaller ones.
2. Feed plants regularly with a high potash feed.
3. Deadhead regularly and water morning and night in dry spells. Never let pots dry out because it will be really difficult to re-wet them again.
What to do this week
Plant autumn-flowering bulbs such as amaryllis, nerines and autumn crocuses.
Feed long-flowering and late flowering border perennials.
Collect and sow or store ripe seeds before they fall.
Encourage clematis in flower to bloom again in late summer by applying a liquid feed.
Take advantage of good weather to patch and paint glasshouses and frames.
In hot weather, shade newly planted crops such as brassicas from the sun until they are established.
Where roots are exposed due to watering, apply a top dressing of compost to tomatoes.
Summer-prune wall-trained plums and cherries, with the exception of Morello, by shortening back side-shoots by a third.
Continue to water containers and hanging baskets daily.
Trim and reshape hedges.
Top up the water in ponds and aerate it if you see fish gasping for oxygen in hot weather.
Harvest fruit, vegetables and herbs while they are in prime condition. Freeze, store or give away produce if you can’t use it immediately.
Plant out seedlings and rooted cuttings.

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