Bagged compost

I consider myself to be green,I compost, I pick up litter, I recycle, I spray only when necessary, I even pick off caterpillars rather than spraying .
I also am frustrated ,I own a garden centre and over the years have tried to sell many new products that have very credible refereeâ??s and references as to being good for the environment, usually unsuccessfully. However I do not get this insistence on peat free. I believe that nature is a balance and while I am more than happy to endorse and sell a product that is a copy of peat I have not as yet found it. We take a minimal amount of peat fiber from well policed managed sites and make our country one of the most envied gardening nations in the world. We propagate (this is green) sow (this is green) and transplant (this is green) and spread these wonderful varied selection of plants aiding there growth with peat (green again).
The products that we are increasingly being pressed to use are waste by name and nature and in the last two years I have had weed seed, plastic, wood, wood chip, paint flakes, and m.d.f and finaly glass in the domestic mixes that I am being told is equal to peat composts. Rubbish!
I am also told that this percentage of inclusion is to be increased by 2010 to 90% recycled.
Regards woodlands seems apt at the moment as ive got a bad back!

 

I tried pet free compost once. Never again. Absolute rubbish. I mourn the passing of the large bales of peat. I used it on my borders to keep my azaleas and rhodis happy.

Plastic? Paint chippings? not exactly bio degradable are they. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Who exactly is putting the pressure on here Woodlands?

 

Appears to be "the greens" and as with everything our weak minded government panders to the loud minority without weighing the pros and cons

 

Are these not European influences?
I haven't noticed, but I think we can still buy large bales of peat here in ireland

 

Can you still burn peat briquettes on a fire? They used to be quite widespread when I lived in Northern Ireland. Nothing like the smell of a peat fire

 

Yes to both bales of peat still available and a customer had compressed peat briquetts in her car boot yesterday

 

Whis I haven't seen them for ages. Where do you get yours? I am in Lisburn and our garden centres have disappeared in recent years. I have been relying on B&Q.

Aaron yes you can still get the peat briquettes. We use them every winter. You are right the smell is wonderful

 

we have stocked them for all those years,why not ask B&Q whether they would get you some or your local allotment association
regards Woodlands

 

A drive through the Irish countryside, especially the West of Ireland is an experience (and not just for the appalling roads and lack of signage:hehe. A lot of people who were born and raised there still dig their own peat for burning. The smell is fabulous.

 

Apparently the "GREEN PARTY" should have "WON" most seats in the recent Euro elections,but they were so busy being "green" that they placed their ballot papers in the recycling bins, so were not counted!

Not sure if it is true or not!

.

 

I think that was a joke doing the rounds, but it's quite a good one:D

 

So we keep digging the peat up until it's all gone right.

 

No , I did,nt sugest that.My gryp is that that the product that I am told to sell to my customers is not only pollutted but inferior.
That once a peat bog had been in opened it was already lost its integrity for holding co2 so why not let it serve its useful life time by the cultivation of plants that would through there life capture more.

Gardening witch more than demonstrated how poor the alternatives were for seed germination why not use the limited sources of peat for young plants/seeds and use the more erratic compost on potting on, a little bit like John Inns compost seed ,1,2,3.
I have no problem with change providing its for the better or at least as good.

Peter Seabrook one of our elder statesmen of gardening didn't appear convinced by the governments figures,I for one after their monetary escapades would prefer to believe Peter.