For this post we’ve dipped into the magnificent Conserving Bogs: The Management Handbook (Oct 22, 2021) and extracted a host of facts to inform, surprise and possibly even anger you. Here we go: 1. Wet peat in the ground is often 90% water by weight and if undisturbed, can have the same water content as a jellyfish.2. Peat is formed when plant material can’t decompose because it’s so waterlogged. Plant fragments gradually accumulate to form the waterlogged mass of organic material that we call peat.3. Peatlands cover about 3% of the world’s surface and are found pretty much from pole to pole. That equates to around 4 million square kilometres, roughly the size of India and Pakistan combined.4. Billions of tonnes of carbon are...
Peat is one of the world’s most valuable natural resources. Not in immediate monetary terms like oil but if you consider the future of our planet, peat is priceless. And peat’s value, unlike oil, relies on humans leaving it where it is – in the bogs where it was formed. Its role as a carbon store is what makes it so crucial to our future. The world’s peat bogs hold more carbon than the forests of Britain, Germany and France combined.Peat has several other benefits vital to nature. Many scarce species of flora and fauna live in peatlands without which they would not survive. This is a direct result of peat’s ability to retain water, holding up to 20 times...
W ho’d have thought you’d get so much from the humble coconut! Not only can you eat the white fleshy bits, drink its water, use its scent for cosmetics and lotions, turn its fibres into coir matting and, best of all, sustainably sourced compost (we would say that wouldn’t we), you can actually re-use the compost so that you get two bites of the cherry.The secret is in its make-up. The premium coir we use in For Peat’s Sake consists of varied sizes of fibre, giving our compost a sturdy structure. This allows for good air circulation and water movement within the coir, preventing it compacting and starting to rot. This means that it’s much less likely to harbour bacteria,...
Mycorrhizal? Let’s start with a more common word: symbiosis. We’ve all heard of that: where two different organisms live in a long-term relationship, usually (but not necessarily) benefitting each other. That’s pretty much what mycorrhizae are all about – a symbiotic association between a fungus (Greek: mykes) and a plant’s roots (Greek: rhiza). And in this case the partnership is mutually beneficial. The fungus supplies water and nutrients from the soil to the plant. In return, the plant supplies sugars by photosynthesis to the fungus.We’re not done with Scrabble-busting words yet. A plant’s primary root system is called its rhizosphere. Mycorrhizal fungi augment this rhizosphere by providing a whole secondary root system for the plant, extending their filaments or hyphae...
The public has voted! And pretty much unanimously. A whopping 95% of people decreed that amateur gardeners in England should not be able to buy peat from 2024 onwards. In effect, compost containing peat, dug up from precious peat bogs, will no longer be on sale in gardening centres and supermarkets.Despite lobbying from industry groups, who were pushing for a voluntary approach rather than an outright ban, saying that alternatives like coconut coir were not yet well enough developed or widely available (really?), the ban has been confirmed.The lobbyists were fighting a losing battle as the public consultation (which received 5000 responses) has proved. The sale of peat-based composts was already in steady decline, dipping below 30% of commercially sold...
