Growing your Own...
It can be so rewarding, be it fruit and vegetables or flowers. If you want to produce your own food, you can ensure its fresh and organic, which will also improve the flavour. Flowers also have a tendency to be more fragrant and, being fresh, will more than likely last longer than the shop alternatives. This benefits your health, gives you fresh organic food, gentle, relaxing exercise and reduces your carbon footprint with less food miles. A win-win situation!

Peat is an organic matter that is formed in wetlands and moors. It is a popular ingredient for many commercially produced composts. However, there are three main issues concerned with peat extraction:

Habitat destruction – When peat is extracted it disrupts the natural landscape and destroys habitats of numerous creatures and plant life.

Sustainable resources – British bogs are at a record low, and are being dug up much quicker than they can replenish themselves. Currently peat is being extracted at a rate of three million cubic meters every year and they only grow at a rate of 5mm per year taking thousands of years to reach harvestable depths.

Climate change – Approximately one third of the peat we use comes from Britain, the rest being imported. The amount imported is also expected to rise as more UK peat bogs come under environmental protection.

The government originally set targets of being 90 percent peat-free by this year, but has failed as 50 percent of compost formulations are still peat-based. In March this year they set new targets for reducing peat in garden compost. They have stated that all composts for home gardeners must be peat-free by 2020.

Using Peat
We can help by switching to peat-free alternatives. However, there is a difference between using peat based and peat free products. If you used them side by side and treated them the same the peat based would more than likely come off the as the better, but if you are sensitive to it, the peat free compost will sometimes outstrip the peat based. It is just a matter of watering and feeding.

Peat free products, on the whole, have better water retention. This is good for the summer months when hot weather can dry out pots of composts over the course of a day. However in winter this can cause problems with water logging. This can be combated by keeping it in mind when watering or by adding in grit or sharp sand to create better drainage.

A technique that has been found to be successful is watering and feeding little but often, so the same amount of water or feed, but at shorter intervals.

Making Your Own
Composting creates a medium very high in nitrates, which is not suitable for use as a potting compost. However, it can be mixed with other ingredients to make a suitable medium for potting, or used as it is as a soil improver.

Leaf mould is another medium which can be created completely free in your back garden. Made up of decomposed shrub and tree leaves, it is low in nitrogen, making it a good partner for home and garden composted waste. However, it takes a long time for them to decay, one to two years. They should be placed in a bag or wire bin which will encourage fungal action and they need to be kept moist.

There are many recipes for homemade composts. One example is to mix five parts of leaf mould to one part of sand. Potting on compost can then be made from mixing this seed compost with equal parts of garden compost.