Articles and Blogposts

Who Needs Peat?

Peat-free composts can grow plants just as well as peat-based, but with an added feel-good factor. Read more.

It’s Time To Have Your Peat-Free Say On ‘Towards Sustainable Growing Media’

The chair of the government’s Sustainable Growing Media Task Force (SGMTF), Dr Alan Knight, has now published his chair’s report and draft ‘road map’, Towards Sustainable Growing Media. Read more.

Farewell Peat

We should salute peat’s service to gardening, but we no longer need it to grow a beautiful, productive plot. Read more.

Peat-Free Compost: A Buyer’s Guide

Having testing more peat-free composts than I could shake a beanpole at, I recommend my top six peat-frees for the 2012 sowing and growing season. Read more.

Peat-Free Compost: A User’s Guide

I reflect on lessons learned from my 2011 gardening trial of some good, bad and ugly peat-free composts. Read more.

Gardeners Remain Sidelined by The Government’s Sustainable Growing Media Task Force on Ending Peat Use. Don’t We Count?

Isn’t it time the government’s Task Force on peat got down to the job of actually talking to the folk responsible for two thirds of UK peat use? Read more.

Choosing And Using Peat-Free Compost

Are you looking for a dependable peat-free compost that gives consistently good results?

Open Thread: Buying Peat-Free Compost – How Easy Are You Finding It?

With fine weather forecast for many areas, this weekend will see many of us out stocking up on earth-friendly peat-free seed, potting and ‘multipurpose’ compost. Read more.

Peat-Free Compost on Trial: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Inspired (if that’s the right word) by dodgy and persistent claims that all ‘peat-free compost is rubbish’, I’ve set out to find out for myself. Read more.

Considerate Cultivation: Running Your Garden on Truly Renewable Fuels

Going peat-free is all-important in an earth-friendly garden, but there’s more: the compost you use needs to be a truly renewable fuel. Read more.

The Peat ‘Debate’ Does Us All Harm 

The belief that by using peat compost we can benefit nature keeps us disconnected from the natural world. Read more.

Compost Crisis

Climate-friendly peat-free composts aren’t taking their place at the heart of more eco-savvy gardening because we’re not yet paying enough for them. Read more.

The Peat Delusion

As gardening spin urges us to keep buying peat compost, science is telling us that the safest place for peat is in the ground. Read more.