For all our sakes – Stop using Peat (first published in West Sussex County Times)
No doubt you have heard that for a healthy planet, we should use peat-free compost, but do you know why, or what exactly is peat?
Peat is soil made up of organic matter that has only partially rotted down. The lack of oxygen and the acidic nature of waterlogged peat bogs prevent bacteria and fungi from breaking down the dead plant material. It is formed over millions of years, at a rate of only 1mm thickness per year, but we are currently extracting it at a rate much, much faster than that! By ‘mining’ peat we are both damaging the ecology and adding to climate change.