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Specialist nurseries say a ban on peat could put them out of business – and wreck efforts to conserve plants that are now extinct in their natural habitats.
The UK government wants to ban peat use by amateur gardeners by 2020 and halt its use at nurseries by 2030.
However, other EU countries do not intend to phase out peat. And Dutch…
Green groups have lashed out after an influential organic gardener demanded the right to use peat.
Writing in AG, Bob Flowerdew, the BBC Radio 4 Gardeners’ Question Time panellist, made the ultimate organic taboo: he confessed to using a small amount of peat in loam-based sowing compost.
Bob argued that peat was a renewable resource and suggested: “Why not let us have…
I like to think I am a reasonably environmentally-friendly chap, writes AG news editor Marc Rosenberg.
I grow quite a lot of veg, herbs and salads, use hardly any chemicals in the garden, recycle around 80 per cent of my household rubbish and so on.
But apparently, despite all my efforts to ‘go green,’ I am considered by some to be an…
Anti-peat warriors are licking their wounds after suffering a devastating setback.
Campaigns to bring a peat phase-out forward from 2020 to 2016, and calls for a tax on peat-based compost, have been brushed aside by the Government.
It has even been confirmed that targets to wean gardeners off peat over the next decade will be voluntary.
A similar ‘voluntary’ deadline set by the…
Another influential gardening expert has defended his use of peat.
Nigel Colborn, gardening columnist for the Daily Mail and chair of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Trials Advisory Committee, said he uses peat “sparingly and carefully.”
His comments come after Alan Titchmarsh admitted he “sometimes uses peat” as alternatives such as coir had “used up too many air miles” (AG, 30 April).
Following a…
Green garden products could soon carry an official organic label.
The move is aimed at cutting confusion over eco-friendly claims, branded ‘greenwash’ by environmentalists.
Charity Garden Organic has issued a set of traffic light-style organic guidelines. Red lights show what is not acceptable while a green light indicates best practice.
The guidelines say peat is “never acceptable in an organic garden” and that…
WELL OVER half of the UK’s most influential celebrity gardeners have failed to stop using peat in their own gardens, a shock survey revealed last week.
The poll, for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, follows ‘green’ gardener Alan Titchmarsh’s admission that he still relies on peat (AG, 30 April).
RSPB researchers quizzed 27 star gardeners including Bob Flowerdew (GQT),…
Conservationists say they are “stunned” after TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh admitted to using weedkiller and peat.
The former Gardeners’ World presenter, who claims to have resisted chemical pesticides for 10 years, confessed he’d “occasionally” used Roundup weedkiller as “his back is not as well oiled as it was for double digging”.
To the dismay of green groups, Alan, who is regarded as…
Peat is not in short supply and its extraction need not harm the environment if carefully managed, claims a shock report.
The International Peat Society (IPS) in Finland, says there are 400million hectares of peatland on Earth – but just 2,000 square kilometres is used globally to make compost.
In contrast, 300,000km2 has been used worldwide for farming, 150,000km2 for forestry and…
Green groups have urged the Government to slap a £1-per bag tax on peat-based compost in the Budget on 23 March.
Wildlife and conservation groups say peat bogs dug up for compost are responsible for 630,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
The RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Plantlife, Butterfly Conservation, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, Buglife and Vital Earth are calling on chancellor…
