 Growing Gardens
with Julia Hancock
For Peat's Sake
Peat has been popular for many years as a soil improver and mulch for acid-loving plants but because it is a finite resource modern gardeners are looking to alternatives for the same purpose.
Surprisingly it is domestic rather than commercial consumers of peat moss or sphagnum moss who have created the demand which has so depleted the ancient peat bogs of northern Europe.
Home gardeners now have a wide choice of products, which can be used liberally without causing damage to the landscape, and many of them are far cheaper than imported peat.
Potting mixes include many ingredients that have been tried and tested for optimum propagating and planting use. Coir, which is produced from palms, has proved excellent as a basis for seed raising and cuttings mixes, while pot plants thrive in growing media based on composted green waste, fine grade bark and worm castings.
To my mind the best soil improver is still organically-made compost, which can be enriched with old animal manures, spent mushroom compost, grass clippings, mulched prunings etc. to give sandy soils a more cohesive structure and to open up dense clay soils that have poor aerating properties.
These days just about anything can be used as a mulch to conserve moisture and suppress weeds. Around camellias and azaleas composted leaf litter, pine needles, bark and straw laced with some blood and bone and kept damp will work as well as traditional peat-based mulches. In vegetable and flower beds where the soil is frequently turned over, mulches should comprise materials that break down quickly such as grass clippings, lucerne hay and home-made compost mixed with a small quantity of chicken manure and liquid seaweed.
None of us want to be responsible for degrading the habitat of the birds, animals and insects that live around peat bogs so let's think before we buy and try something different.
|
