Are you ready to cut out peat?

British gardeners have been growing plants in peat for decades. High-quality, reliable and inexpensive, it’s one of nature’s finest growing media. You’ve probably used it yourself for sowing seeds, potting on cuttings or planting into containers. Most bagged composts contain at least some peat, and the vast majority of plants you buy are grown in it, too.

But the UK’s growing band of eco-conscious gardeners believe digging up peat bogs for compost is an environmental crime. About three million cubic metres of peat is harvested each year to use in bags of garden compost. Natural England (a public body that works to protect the country’s natural environment) estimates we’ve lost more than 90 per cent of the UK’s lowland peat bogs, destroying an irreplaceable habitat and letting loose locked-up carbon, which contributes to global warming.

The government agrees. Back in 2011 it set a voluntary