Both our guests on the HortWeek Podcast broadly agree with the reasons for a peat ban and agree there is a need to reduce carbon emissions to help fight climate change. But they are not equally convinced a peat ban is the way to do it.
In the 'for' corner is cosmos and hollyhocks national collection holder and lobbyist Jonathan Sheppard.
Sheppard says: "You only have to look at places like Hampton Court where they have the peat-free garden where the plant list was massive. I've never seen a plant list as long which showed people that you can grow without peat. So I'm just wholly not convinced that you can't be a successful grower. But then I guess it depends on what do we mean by a successful grower. I just don't want to see rewards being given when there's an RHS sustainability strategy when using peat...It must be the wrong thing to do, given the science that we know about how much CO2 digging this cheap product up emits."
And in the 'not so sure' corner we have dahlia and sweet pea grower Darren Everest.
Darren argues: "Just for example in the National Dahlia Society, you try finding me one of the top elite growers that don't use peat and I think you'll struggle to find any...growing flowers to national level requires a lot of time and years of knowledge and experience growing and I haven't found anybody online yet, certainly in the dahlia world, that has found a suitable non-peat-based product. "
HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby hosts the discussion which focuses on efforts to end peat use by growers and RHS exhibitors.
The pair reflect on their experience of using peat free and debate how significant the carbon emissions cuts achieved by ending peat use in horticulture will be.
The RHS plans to end peat use from 2026 and they ponder how this ban will affect different growers, awards, whether shows will attract fewer exhibitors and crucially, how it can be policed.
For more information on growers and garden retailers going peat free, see https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/peat
Presenter: HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby
Producer: Digital content manager Christina Taylor
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