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Posted by phyll_ostachys (U12011174) on Friday, 27th March 2009
Hi there. If you'd like a sneak preview of tonight's show, take a look at the new videoclip on the Gardeners' World homepage:
Tune in to the programme at 8pm on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Two.
Phyll
Thanks Phyll, that should be interesting.
Bumping this thread to avoid duplication. Please share your comments about the programme here. thanks Phyll
I've been looking forward to this one. I'm hoping it gives a good balanced arguament, and doesn't preach too much.
I was a very enjoyable program and quite balanced.
It will not put me off using peat as there is nothing like it.
Surely the whole point is that although there is nothing exactly the same, there are alternatives the give just as good results?
After watching the programme I have decided to stick with peat for raising seeds, and then switch to peat free for the garden.....
I was bored.
I thought it was very good and very balanced. As with last week's special, it wasn't patronising, just straightforward information. I've read about this issue before but there were new bits of info I didn't know about, too.
I admit (guiltily)that I do sometimes pick up multi-purpose compost and look at the price rather than the content. However, as with using chemicals in the garden, I conclude that imho we do all have a responsibility to think about the impact of our gardening.
When it comes to leisure gardening, how awful to damage the planet for the sake of our own little patches of land. If I make a cake, I know what goes into it. If I buy one, I tend to read the ingredients to see if there are things in it that I want to avoid. I think we gardeners should do the same - I like the idea of better compost labelling - in fact better labelling altogether.
For me, this is the second week that it has been an informative special programme and pleasantly, calmly, presented.
What a brilliant programme, and a pleasant surprise. Nice to see GW giving a balanced and pretty indepth analysis of the Peat situation. Didn't feel preached at, and left the programme much more informed on all sides.
Hurray and thanks
, in reply to message 1.
Posted by ramsgategardener (U13890746) on Friday, 27th March 2009
Thanks for the interesting programme,however it would have been useful to know the prportion of peat used in power stations in Ireland against horticultural use.Large portions of peat bog have been turned over to agriculture and forestry.Does it make sense to use substitute peat products from timber grown in these areas.
Well it was bias against peat! It ignored that if the peat is not used in growing plants it will go up a power stations chimney. It did not acknowledge that composting any material causes more methane and Co2 and absorbs oxygen. Perhaps the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú should separate environmental programs from gardening! But remember that every one that grows plants gives off more oxygen than Co2 thats the important issue not jumping on the governments band wagons! Do n't get me started on plastic bags!
, in reply to message 3.
Posted by bloomsburybarton (U13890799) on Friday, 27th March 2009
I thought the program was as dry as dust and did nothing to change the way I will garden in the future.
Biased against peat I would say. It ignored the fact that much horticultural peat would be burned in power stations in Europe if not used in the garden. Remember all composted materials give of methane a much worse greenhouse gas than Co2. The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú should separate environmental programes from gardening programs. Thought the really important message is to grow something no matter how you do it as any plant will absorb Co3 and give out oxygen. Gravel, concrete and decking will not!
It was excellent and not biased against peat. In my opinion, Peter Seabrook doesn't give any consideration to the environment having listened to him on the radio and read his articles.
, in reply to message 15.
Posted by Stressed out (U11163734) on Saturday, 28th March 2009
Nice to see that everyone can stick to one thread
Doh
Oh no, not again, Rowancottage, and we can't even blame Phyllo this week!
, in reply to message 3.
Posted by hypercharleyfarley (U7444019) on Saturday, 28th March 2009
Hello - posting here (obediently - so's not to add to the duplication of threads, as per instructions!)
I enjoyed the programme very much and thought
Toby did a very good presenting job. However, In my opinion it would have been better to broadcast this particular programme during the winter months to make way for topics more relevant to this part of people's gardening year. I do get cross, however, when posters bang on about people driving 4 x 4s. There are lots of other cars which "guzzle gas", and some of us who tow heavy trailers or caravans need a suitable vehicle for that. I don't moan about people who buy strawberries in January, or string beans from Kenya. Perhaps they should be a target too? shouldn't we consider the livelihoods of those growers in other countries? The people who have an issue with "food miles" should, in my view, go & live in a town (on a bus route) and also use a bicycle. Perhaps they should also consider what goes into their own shopping baskets and adjust their diets, and only ever buy British produce to the exclusion of everything else. Cheers! Ma.
, in reply to message 18.
Posted by thevodkarose (U13048111) on Saturday, 28th March 2009
To be honest, I don't think a 60 minute runtime was long enough to go into other uses of peat. It was a 60 minute Gardener's World, and did what it said on the tin.
That said, a wider ranging 90 minute show would have been superb in a prime time weekend slot. The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú being supposed to offer a public service, and all that jazz!
Horticulture is the biggest user of peat.
It is still possible to buy bags of peat very cheaply - a long time ago I used to use it a a soil improver.
We all grew up with peat as a useful growning medium, learned to cultivate plants in it, and will need to learn new methods to cope with peat free mediums if we are to use them. I find it difficult to grow small seeds in peat free composts, but intend to try different mediums and mixes.
I was quite interested in the studies of peat free compost, I had not realised that they vary with locality.
I am lucky to spend a lot of my time near wetlands and peat bogs; it seems contradictary to me to destroy natural beauty for horticultural reasons.
I don't understand horticulture's obsession with peat - (its low cost aside)
It is not a natural plant growing medium - rare peat bogs aside, it's not what most plants find themselves in in nature.
Pure peat is largely an inert, acid, nutrient-free substrate. It's purely a physical medium for the storage and supply of air, water and nutrients and is easily substituted. My predecessor at the nursery grew all seeds in pure vermiculite, for instance. Not my preference, but it worked for her.
Personally I haven't grown anything in peat for 10 years - domestically or commercially. It's no big deal, it's normal to me. So what if peat is used as a fuel by others? I'm doing what I think is probably the least worst option as far as bulk purchased growing mediums are concerned and am happy to do so. I leave others to make their own call.
Sorry I am wandering off topic a bit here, but you mention vermiculite, Trills and just the other day I was wondering what the environmental impact of that is. Environmental impact is a minefield, if you'll excuse the pun.
Not exactly sure Aspi - but I think it takes a huge amount of energy to make. Kind of a heat expanded rock mineral.
No easy answers, are there?
Again, I don't think the gardener is the main consumer of vermiculite. The main use is as an insulation for cavity walls, although recycled newsprint is being used more and more often now.
I bought loft insulation made from a fibre spun from recycled plastic bottles last year. From Bee and Queue. Looked and felt the part. No nasty fibres to itch your skin for days either.
In all honesty I did fall asleep during this programme - age + red wine I think - but fortunately I did record it and watched it again this afternoon. By and large it was very interesting, especially the 'prickly' interview with Peter Seabrook, but I'm not sure where my sympathies lay. I use GP compost with peat added, and frankly have never given it a moments thought. At the very least, I'll think more in the future. TB came over extremely well, I thought.
As with others, I found the programme boring and turned off after about 30 minutes. Interesting to hear that others found otherwise.
I am interested whether those who found it boring were bored because they anted a normal Gardener's World programme or were bored by the issue and the way in which it as presented. It seems to me that that for too long people have perhaps gardened in isolation to the world around them.
I didn't watch the programme because I anticipated being bored, having heard it all before.
I'm surprised by the references to climate change. I was a member of the RSPB long before I took up gardening, and the argument against using peat used to be that it was destroying rare wildlife habitat. I've always used peat-free compost whenever possible.
Having been fortunate enough to travel from Vladivostok to Moscow, I can confirm that Russia has hundreds of miles of peat bogs at least the size of Africa and many more trees than the Amazon - all just sitting there waiting to supply the planet for the next couple of thousand years, or more. It just needs the logistics working out.
The programme did exactly what I thought it would and i found it interesting. I would have liked more on the alternatives and where we can find them. Personally I have tried not to use peat since a holiday in the south of ireland more than 10 years ago. It was such a shock driving through the Emerald Isle and then to suddenly see this huge brown emptiness where they were removing peat commercially. I know Irish homes use it on a small scale as fuel but that's small beer compared to the vast expanse of nothing that I saw.
I would also like to have heard more about how firms restore the peatlands once they've finished and whether ir is successful.
In reply to someone on one of the other threads about peat - if i understood it correctly it's the removing of the peat in the first place that releases the carbon dioxide not the digging it back into the soil.
Hi, I understand I missed a really interesting GW Special on Friday. Please will the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú repeat GW special on Peat as some of us have social lives as well as being keen gardeners! I try not to go out on a Friday night if possible but surely GW could be repeated later that week, just like lots of the other Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú programmes that are repeated, (but they never seem to be the interesting ones!). Alternatively a fact sheet on the programme would be a good idea. Unfortunately I am unable to watch it again on iPlayer.
I watched the Gardeners' World programme last week on peat which I found very interesting. My great grandfather was a gardener who worked on the Duke of Sutherland's estate in Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent. I wonder what was used in those days to grow plants and seedlings. Did they have peat I wonder? or did they rely on a readily available supply of horse manure. If anyone knows the answer to this one I would be very interested.
My father was a gardener in the 1940s/50s and they never used Peat all composts were a combination of loam, leafmould and sand in diff preportions.
Thanks for that pinktequila,that is very interesting. Perhaps we should go back to the old ways and make our own compost.
I think we all learned to use peat because it was the norm - I don't get such good results from coir and vermiculite but am willing to persevere.
I think if there is a place for horticultural peat it is in seed raising, not in the growing of larger pot plants or in soil conditioning. I want a lovely garden but want beautiful countryside more.
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