Isn't any peat in compost an environmental no-no?

All of my 2500 plus litres is Verve and I can't say that, over the years, I have ever had a problem. I did once buy a 800 litre sack of compost from the Council which wasn't bad but I had to add so much Perlite, and Peat, after using it "straight" that it wasn't economical or worth the effort of adding so much extra material along with the increased feeding of plants.

 

After the fiasco that we had with the Wickes compost the manufacturer replaced all ours with Jack's Magic. It was OK but we weren't particularly impressed with it. This year we have been using Verve from B&Q and it has been quite good. I've no idea how much peat is in it but it was sufficient for growing seeds and potting on. The people that buy the plants are happy with it - at the price we're able to sell them at

 

Bluebell Cottage Gardens is only about 12 miles away from me and I have visited it and bought plants from there several times and I would recommend anyone living nearby to visit it. I spoke with some of the Staff there last year and they gave no indication then, that they were solely using Peat free compost.

Well, I guess. WB. that would cost me around £430 for the amount of compost I use which would not be economical.

Well, actually, WB, if you read my posts. I said I had trialed several, finding some to be poor but Jacks Magic to be not too bad as I said to pete. However, if you read the thread through several other members have stated their opinions on the available Peat Free Compost and several were not impressed by the compost they had bought and used. So I am not the only person, despite the focus on me, to believe them, after using and trialling various brands of Peat Free Compost, to be unsatisfactory, unreliable in quality, and not economical.

I trialed the various composts in order to get idea of the quality of Peat Free Compost against Peat Added Compost in order to get knowledge knowing it could be a loss to me financially so, knowing that, I was quite happy not to ask for a replacement or refund.

Well again, I'm not so sure of such a sweeping statement as that. I do know that the commercial Rose growers, of which there are many in Cheshire, do not use Peat Free Compost but of other commercial growers I cannot say.

This discussion will only end, satisfactorily, when a reliable, good quality, Peat Free Compost comes on the market at an economical price and it's not just my opinion, but others who've contributed to this Thread, that that time has not arrived.

 

As I said I visited them last year so things can change and if they can grow their stock well on it good for them. I bought quite a lot of plants from them last year and all the plants were of high quality and their prices are not bad, but the one car width lane that you have to drive on to get to them is a little bendy and needs careful driving .

 

I do try and test as many types of peat free compost as possible and I would have liked to try Melcourt products, but apart from it being a bit pricey for the quantity I need they have told me that my nearest supplier is just over 28 miles away.

 

Good post @WoolyBack.

 

You'e absolutely correct, Jymi. One of my gardening Hero's was/is Geof Hamilton who when making a program for Gardeners World showed you the soil at Barnsdale and, over the fence, in a Farmers field. Barnsdale soil was full of worms, detritus, and fertile while on the other side of the fence in the Farmers field it was clods of hard "soil" with no life or in it what so ever. The only way the Farmer got his crops to grow was to use masses of Chemicals and Pesticides.
I have several books from the 19th Century written by Head Gardeners on what chemicals they used and those chemicals were so dangerous that they shortened the lives of the gardeners working on the Big House Estates.
My Great Grandfathers and their families worked on the estate of Chatsworth House, over the centuries, in Derbyshire as House Staff, Gardeners, Head Gardeners, Game Keepers, and even as Estate Managers and we have material telling how they lived, worked and what they used to grow food etc and not everything was "Paradise". But it's obvious from the tales that they knew how vital it was to work with the environment and Nature. That's maybe why I grow mostly Insect friendly hardy perennials, Shrubs, and the odd natural "weed", providing insects and the like to make proper food for Butterflies, Hoverflies, Bees of all kinds, Wasps and Flies, the latter which most people don't realise are great Pollinators in their own right.
I have at least 3 resident Hedgehogs in the garden who are quite happy to trundle around taking no notice of me working in the borders, and the Birds treat the garden like a food bank with flocks of Sparrows doing a daily patrol of the borders eating Aphids and the like as well as using the seven Feeders hanging from Trees and Shrubs.
So, it's not just nice of have wildlife in the garden, it's vital for the well being and natural balance of the garden. So, for me, I would rather ensure that I respect and encourage Nature and Wildlife, not using Pesticides but using organic fertilisers, rather than narrowly focusing on one environmental subject such as Peat extraction in, perhaps, the belief that it's more important than encouraging Wildlife of all kinds into our gardens and trying to keep the natural environmental balance. I would rather look at the bigger picture than think that the smaller focusing on one subject is more important.
So, Yes, we know about Peat extraction and it's effects on Peat Bogs and local Insect life but. as said so many times on this Thread, there is still not a reliable, quality, affordable Peat Free Compost on the retail market, despite the recommendations of certain brands, for the average gardener at an affordable price that they can happily use in the quantities they would like.

 

They look the same to me, what brand peat free ?