For peat’s sake!!
Hilary Ben is urging Garden Centres to make it clear if the compost they are selling contains peat.
Peat bogs are an important store of carbon emissions, but peat dug up in Britain for garden compost releases almost half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – the equivalent of 100,000 cars on the road.
'As more and more people turn to growing their own food and the trend towards the ‘good life’becomes more apealing, it is estimated that 70% of the peat used in horticulture is used by amatuers. Gardeners who understand the dangers manage to use other products with great results.'
Peat is an organic material that forms in the waterlogged, sterile, acidic conditions of bogs and fens. These conditions favour the growth of mosses, especially sphagnum. As plants die, they do not decompose. Instead, the organic matter is laid down over hundreds of thousands of years, and slowly accumulates as peat because of the lack of oxygen in the bog. Like fossil fuel it is non-renewable and has dangerous side effects when dug up. Each year just under half a million tons of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere as a result of peat extraction for horticultural use alone in the UK.
Left undesturbred Peatlands are home to wildlife including birds such as red throated diver and wimbrels.
Only a tiny fraction of Britain's ancient peatlands remain because of extraction, drainage, erosion and overgrazing. Peatbogs contain so much water that when drained the ground level can slump by several feet. Sphagnum moss, a common component o the vegetation covering peat, can contain 20 times its own weight in water. Climate change campaigners have called for peatlands and other wetlands to be protected because of their value in acting as carbon sinks. Emergency measures have been taken in some parts of the country to protect peat bogs, including the Peak District where eroded areas are re-seeded. For more information on Defra's Peat - Free Campaign..
For more on Peatlands go: http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/facts/facts
