Be successful without peat

Treat composts differently, says Nick Hamilton

- Nick Hamilton

MOST gardeners want to stop using peat products to save our threatened ancient peatland and the environment but are deterred by mixed results However, gardeners at Barnsdale Gardens has been growing peat-free for 30 years and have had great success.

The garden was the ‘great experiment’ of much-loved Gardeners’ World presenter Geoff Hamilton, who pioneered organic and peat-free horticulture at a time when it was relatively unknown in the mainstream.

The methods he used have been continued at the Rutland gardens under the auspices of Geoff’s son Nick.

He explained: “The main thing is that peat-free compost isn’t peat so it needs to be treated differently.