British Gardeners Battle Over Peat, for Bogs’ Sake

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The New York Times
Sunday, October 07, 2012

British Gardeners Battle Over Peat, for Bogs’ Sake

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

DICKLEBURGH, England — For Britain’s legion of gardeners, peat has long been as essential to gardening as beer is to the corner pub. So trowels flew after the British government — heeding environmental concerns — announced plans to gradually eliminate peat from all gardening products, setting off an intense battle over how to prioritize two of this country’s defining passions: indulging the yard and protecting the planet.

While many gardeners regard the partially decomposed plant matter known as peat as an almost magical elixir, environmentalists say using it is problematic because it is scraped off the tops of centuries-old bogs, which are vital ecosystems that also serve as natural stores of carbon, just like rain forests.

The celebrity gardener Bob Flowerdew was shocked by the violent reaction when he said he would defy the government and continue to use peat to nurture finicky plants like azaleas. “The hate mail was quite frightening — in some circles I’ve become an outcast,” said Mr. Flowerdew, a longtime panelist on the BBC’s “Gardeners’ Question Time” radio program, and a favorite speaker at women’s clubs.

The debate between the gardening industry and environmentalists grew so acerbic that the government appointed an emergency peat task force after the phaseout plan was announced last year, which delivered a first report this summer. “What I’ve done is to try to unblock an impasse — to find a sensible midpoint where everyone agrees,” said Alan Knight, the task force chairman and an expert in sustainability. “We needed a road map of how to get to zero peat.”

But some gardeners and gardening companies say they simply cannot do without peat, a spongy natural concoction of water, air and acidity, for nurturing certain seeds and plants.

“If you love your garden, you really can’t just abstain,” said Mr. Flowerdew, surrounded in his greenhouse by bags of peat-free alternatives he has tried.

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