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THIS month, the UK government announced that peat-based composts would no longer be sold to home gardeners by 2024. But some say the ban should happen sooner and also encompass peat鈥檚 use by plant nurseries, which is under consultation but not definitely going to be included.

It is ironic that gardeners, who tend to care about the wider environment as well as their own personal green space, often buy peat-based growing media, which is bad for the planet. I have done it myself out of habit and convenience.

Commercially available peat compost is usually made from peat dug out of lowland bogs that form in high rainfall areas of northern Europe and Canada. It makes a wonderful growing medium for new plants because of its ability to hold air and water and retain nutrients.

Yet peat bogs are a precious and finite resource, taking thousands of years to form out of partially decomposed moss residues. When we drain and rip up the bogs, we lose unique ecosystems and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The good news is that there are plenty of alternatives. In a previous column, I looked at how to make your own compost from garden waste and kitchen scraps. This makes a great mulch and general soil improver, but if used as a growing medium in plant pots, it would be too heavy and high in nutrients. So , like horticultural sand, leaf mould or just a light soil.

But it can be hard to reliably make enough home compost unless your garden is huge. Plus it probably would be clumpier than is ideal for seed germination 鈥� and would also need sterilising to kill weed seeds, by baking in the oven.

A simpler option can be to switch to buying peat-free growing media. These can be based on composted wood, bark, wool or coconut fibre. There have been concerns about their quality, but those available today generally give excellent results for plants, according to the UK鈥檚 .

The peat-free products may be a bit pricier, but last time I looked, it wasn鈥檛 by much compared with the cost of the plants I had just bought. Yet until the ban comes in, do check the label because if it doesn鈥檛 state 鈥減eat-free鈥�, it won鈥檛 be. Peat-free products can also take a little seeking out, but that may change in the next few years.

According to the

Unfortunately, this trend is being somewhat offset as home gardening becomes more popular and so more compost is being bought. Overall, the total amount of peat-based compost bought in the UK fell by a quarter in the eight years up to 2019. The country still has some way to go in phasing out home use of peat before 2024.

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