If you enjoy gardening, especially if you grow houseplants or plants in containers, raise vegetables from seed in trays or modules, or take cuttings from your garden plants, the chances are you use quite a lot of potting compost.

This means you can really make a difference when it comes to getting the peat out of gardening.

Giving up using peat-based compost is one of the easier steps you can take towards low-carbon, environmentally-friendly gardening. You’ll add your buying power to the pressure on manufacturers to stop using peat, as well as sending a clear message to politicians that this is what voters want.

The problem with peat

There are about 27 million ordinary gardeners in the UK – and we get through an absolute mountain of compost. In fact, British gardeners buy about 2.8 million cubic metres of compost annually; that’s about 56 million 50-litre bags, every single year.

The trouble is that only 34% of that compost is 100% peat-free. So about 2 in 3 bags on sale still contain at least some peat dug up from unique peatland ecosystems in the UK and abroad. And when you buy peat-based compost you are directly contributing to climate change by destroying one of the world’s most efficient natural carbon sinks.

Protecting our plants and wildlife

Peatlands are home to a dazzling array of plants, many of which are highly specialised to thrive in these ecosystems. Sphagnum mosses, which are the main ingredient in peat formation, are excellent at sequestering carbon and form symbiotic relationships with bacteria to suppress methane emissions. The UK’s rare carnivorous plant species, including Sundews and Butterworts, can also be found in these precious habitats.

UK peatland bird life is recognised as outstanding within Europe. Many important species congregate around peatlands, including the skylark, the common scoter, and the curlew, all of which are declining in numbers. The curlew is particularly well known for its decline, with its population nearly halving since 1995. Nearly a quarter of curlew breeding populations are supported by the UK’s ecosystems, so the need to protect them is clear.

You don’t need peat to thrive

Peat is a good medium for growing plants – but it’s not necessary to use it to be a good gardener. In fact, peat only really caught on as a compost ingredient in the 1970s, and we were pretty good at gardening before then. In Australia and Japan, where there are no peat bogs, gardeners manage perfectly well with almost no peat at all. In the UK all our major botanic gardens plus all gardens owned and run by the RHS and National Trust (including world-famous gardens like Sissinghurst in Kent) grow wonderful, often unusual plants without peat. You really don’t need peat to have a beautiful garden.

This is why the Peat-Free Partnership is campaigning to end peat sales in horticulture. We need to protect peatlands to ensure they can continue to be beautiful, important ecosystems. Read more about the campaign below, or check out how you can start gardening peat-free.

Sources

BTO;JNCC;RSPB BBS Report 2023
HTA Growing Media Report
Peatland Biodiversity – A Technical Review for the IUCN Peatland Program