Peat compost to be banned – luckily, green alternatives are just as good for your garden

21.08.2023 - 11:45 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest

Header image: IgorAleks/Shutterstock

David Bek, Coventry University and Margi Lennartsson Turner, Coventry University

Peat has been a staple ingredient of composts sold in British garden centres since the 1960s, even though it’s not actually that nutritious for plants. The reason why this spongy turf is coveted by gardeners is that it can hold onto both water and air and it’s generally free of pests and diseases. This makes peat the perfect environment for seeds to germinate and establish strong roots.

But few realise that the peat compost people buy each spring for their gardens took thousands of years to form. Extracted from bogs, fens and marshes, peat is the partially decomposed remains of ancient plants and animals. Peatlands in Europe contain five times more carbon than forests and disturbing peat for agriculture or harvesting it for compost releases CO₂ to the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

The UK government plans to ban peat use among amateur gardeners by 2024. It had originally hoped garden centres in England would voluntarily stop selling peat-based products by 2020. But peat is a cheap resource and swapping it for compost made from alternatives makes little financial sense for these companies without binding regulation. As a result, peat still accounts for around 35% of all compost sales – an increase of 9% in 2020 alone.

With the proposed ban and a pledge to restore 35,000 hectares of peatland across the country by the year after, retailers can no longer delay the transition to peat-free compost. Happily for green-fingered consumers, evidence suggests more ecologically benign compost can still keep gardens blooming beautifully.

Research to find peat replacements began in the 1970s, as the environmental