Gardening over Bank Holiday? Choose peat-free and help to fight climate change!

August 25, 2021

Note: This post contains a link to an external website.

You – yes, you, right at home in your garden – can help fight climate change! How? It’s simple, really – just choose peat-free gardening products – compost and hanging basket liners among other garden necessities.

How does that help? It means that peat is left in the ground where it stores carbon rather than releasing that carbon into the air where it becomes CO2. Peat is formed from vegetation that decays very slowly in the acidic water of peatlands and so it stores that as carbon. It takes thousands of years for peat to grow – like it did here in our own Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses. But it takes just a short time for that carbon to disperse into the atmosphere if peat is dug up or allowed to dry out. Scientists calculate that damaged, unhealthy peatlands make up 6% of all human-caused CO2 released into the atmosphere every year.

With such a wide variety of peat-free compost and other alternatives such as coir and wool compost available, it’s easy to help the Earth while taking good care of your garden. Your plants will love it and your planet will thank you!

You can find out more about peat-free gardening at www.rhs.co.uk.