Category Archives: garden compost

Here’s Some Real Gardening News: Peat-free Composts – Fertile Fibre and SylvaGrow – Bag Two Out of Three Which? Gardening Best Buy 2017 Awards for Container Growing

The April 2017 issue of Which? Gardening magazine brings good news for gardeners, and for our natural world: two out of three of its Best Buy awards for container compost have gone to modern and reliable peat-free compost brands (the other went to … Continue reading

Posted in blog, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, environment, garden compost, garden compost & composting, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, renewable gardening, vegan-organic gardening | 3 Comments

Falling Assets: How to Turn Your Free and Renewable Autumn Leaves Into Rich, Life-giving Leaf Mould to Improve Soil and to Make Your Own Peat-free Potting Compost

Canny gardeners don’t leave any leaves lying – this beautiful and noisy autumn windfall matures into gardening gold that’s free for the raking, and is infinitely renewable year after year after year… By John Walker. Originally published on the Hartley Botanic website as … Continue reading

Posted in climate- & earth-friendly gardening, easy gardening, eco gardening, ecological sustainability, freegardening, garden compost, garden compost & composting, leaf mould, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, renewable gardening, soil | Leave a comment

How Free and Plentiful Woodchips can Help Your Organic, Earth-friendly – and Peat-free – Garden Grow

Mounds of woodchips are everywhere nowadays, they’re free for the taking – and they can help you go peat-free. Inspired by a pioneering vegan-organic vegetable grower, I’m now coveting every fresh mound of chips I find. By John Walker. Published in The … Continue reading

Posted in climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological sustainability, environment, freegardening, garden compost, garden compost & composting, green gardening, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, soil, woodchips | 4 Comments

How Gardeners and a Top Compost-maker are Teaming up to Bring Professional-quality SylvaGrow Peat-free Compost Into More Garden Centres, Plant Nurseries, Shops and Other Horticultural Suppliers

Why didn’t we think of it sooner? The makers of SylvaGrow professional-quality peat-free compost – which has bagged no less than three Which? Gardening Best Buy awards, and carries the endorsement of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) – have just … Continue reading

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Modern Peat-free Composts March on: RHS-Endorsed SylvaGrow Bags a Which? Gardening Best Buy Gong for Container Gardening – for the Second Year in a Row

Just when you thought modern and reliable peat-free composts couldn’t get any better – and there are a clutch of good ones out there – SylvaGrow, a professional grade (as used by professionals…) peat-free, environmentally sustainable, all-purpose compost, has has just been awarded another … Continue reading

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Inclusive, Persuasive and Gently Powerful – How the #Peatfree Hashtag is Changing Gardening and Horticulture for Good

One symbol, the hash sign (that’s one of these #) grafted onto the words ‘peat’ and ‘free’ (as in ‘#peatfree’) is giving all gardeners confidence in forgoing peat use – by slaying tired old myths about whether our garden plants … Continue reading

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All Change for Some Modern Peat-free Composts This Spring

Two of the modern peat-free composts I’ve been sowing and growing in successfully for several years, are a-changing. It’s all down to rebranding, and to one business being taken over by another (after it went bust). It’s always tedious when businesses … Continue reading

Posted in blog, carbon emissions, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological sustainability, environment, garden centres & gardening industry, garden compost, peat & peat-free compost | 23 Comments

Sustainable Sowing

Instead of giving any more time to the myths about sowing in peat-free composts, put them to the test. You’ll find they do the job as well as peat – without the ecological price-tag. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, ecological sustainability, environment, ethics, garden centres & gardening industry, garden compost, green gardening, greenwash, media, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, renewable gardening | Leave a comment

Snowball Effect

Some of the drivers behind the peat-free roll-out are surprising and not all are admirable – but that doesn’t detract from the benefits to the gardener and the natural world. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 7th October 2013 There’s a … Continue reading

Posted in allotments, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, environment, ethics, fossil fuels, garden centres & gardening industry, garden compost, green gardening, greenwash, media, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, renewable gardening | Leave a comment

Farewell Peat

We should salute peat’s service to gardening, but we no longer need it to grow a beautiful, productive plot. Let’s bid peat adieu and gets its greener successors under our fingernails. By John Walker. Published in Guardian Weekend, 16th June … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, environment, garden compost, green gardening, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles | Leave a comment