Prepare for the peat ban

We are here to help you garden without peat, says Ruth

- Ruth Hayes

THIS is the last year that amateur gardeners will be able to buy compost containing peat in England. Sometime between now and the end of 2024 it will become illegal to sell peat-based growing media in garden centres in England – although, of course, there’s nothing stopping anyone from popping to Wales and Scotland to stock up.

At AG we’re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea because we want to help our readers get the best results, but can’t with a clear conscience recommend any single peat-free compost.

This is because we have found – as have many of you – that most of them have inconsistent results. Discrepancies have even been found between bags of the same brand.

Indeed Nick Hamilton of Barnsdale gardens, the son of Gardeners’ World presenter Geoff Hamilton, says that some peat-free composts are so useless they may as well be used as soil improvers rather than actual compost!

Readers have told us they have failed with peat-free compost because it behaves very differently to compost containing peat, and its packaging doesn’t have clear instructions for use.