Dropping peat is not the answer

Use peat until a good alternative is found, says Bunny Guinness

- Bunny Guinness

Peat extraction wrecks peatlands, but only a very small amount is used in gardening

AWARD-winning landscape gardener and Gardeners' Question Time panellist Bunny Guinness has spoken to AG about her fears for the horticultural industry, should the Government forge ahead with plans to ban the sale of peat-based composts by 2024.

She says the move would wreck the horticultural industry and cause further damage to the planet.

The proposed ban comes at a time when other European countries, with the exception of Germany and Switzerland, are planning to double their peat production by 2050, which could put UK growers at a serious disadvantage.

Bunny believes that the main problem is that the industry has yet to come up with a consistently viable substitute to peat.

Because of this, she says peat extraction for horticulture (just 0.053% of all substrate harvested from raised peat bogs is used for horticulture) should continue until the issue is addressed.

She points out that the popular peat alternative coir, the treated fibres from coconut shells sourced in Sri Lanka and India, has its own environmental issues.

Horticulture is an easy target