Monty Don says gardeners using peat are ‘irresponsible’ and calls for Government ban
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Monty Don has said gardeners who use peat are “lazy and irresponsible”, as he backs a new push for the Government to introduce a long-awaited ban.
The TV gardener said “no garden” is worth damaging peat bogs that take thousands of years to form and store vast amounts of carbon.
“As it happens peat is completely unnecessary in any garden,” he said. “To stick to peat compost because that is what you have always used is just lazy and irresponsible.”
A Private Member’s Bill calling for a ban is being debated in the House of Commons on Monday, two years after the Government promised to ban the sale of peat for garden use by the end of this year.
The Bill is being proposed by Theresa Villiers, the former environment secretary. It is being backed by one of her successors, Therese Coffey, who was responsible for bringing forward the phase-out deadline to 2024.
Writing for The Telegraph Ms Coffey called on the Government to “get on with the ban”.
“Unfortunately, we missed the boat to legislate this promise within the Environment Act,” she said. “Now, with a general election on the way, the deadline to deliver on this promise in this Parliament is rapidly approaching.”
The Government is understood to be keen to proceed with the ban this year, but it is unclear if they will find time in the remaining parliament.
Last year the Government admitted the ban would only come in “when parliamentary time allows it”.
Peatlands in the UK store over three billion tonnes of carbon, more than the forests of the UK, Germany and France combined.
Digging them up for compost is contributing to peatlands in the UK now emitting more carbon than they store, although historic destruction for agriculture, overgrazing and atmospheric pollution are also major factors.
The import of peat also contributes to environmental destruction abroad.
The use of peat in gardens in the UK has led to the release of 31 million tonnes of CO2 since 1990, according to analysis from The Wildlife Trusts in 2022. That is equivalent to 15 million return flights from London to New York.
A voluntary target set in 2011 for the industry to end the use of bagged peat compost by 2020 was widely ignored, with over 1 million cubic metres of peat sold to amateur gardeners in 2021.
A survey that year found that only one in 20 garden centres had plans to end the sale of peat-based products and replace them with alternatives.
Peat is also commonly found in potted plants and other garden products, where it is not always clearly labelled.
Ruth Chambers, senior fellow at Green Alliance, said the Private Member’s Bill was a “last chance saloon for Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] to fulfil its promise to ban sales of peat to amateur gardeners”.
“The UK’s peatlands are in a sorry state because of overgrazing, burning, and peat extraction for compost,” she said.
Monty Don said there were now a variety of alternatives, and the cheaper price of peat was merely deferring the true cost by worsening climate change.
“It takes a bulldozer minutes to destroy a peat bog that took hundreds, if not thousands, of years to form and will take as long again to recover,” he said. “It is out and out eco-vandalism and no garden – not mine, not yours, not Sissinghurst or any Chelsea gold medal show garden is worth that.”
Professional gardeners have been given a longer deadline to eliminate peat, with a phase-out starting from 2026.
The horticulture sector argues that alternatives to peat are not as effective and already in high demand, potentially leading to a shortage of plants and trees in the UK.
A Defra spokesman said: “We are committed to ending the use of horticultural peat. We agree there is no need to use peat in gardens and there are now many peat-free alternatives on the market.
“Since we set out our proposals to ban the sale of peat in 2022 we have seen a 59 per cent reduction in peat use across the country, and have worked extensively with industry to move towards a full transition to peat-free working.”
Our peatlands are precious and we need to protect them
by Therese Coffey, former environment secretary
One of life’s greatest pleasures is looking out onto Britain’s green and pleasant land and admiring our rolling hills, our ancient woodlands, and the creatures that inhabit it. That is why being environment and farming secretary was such a privilege, set with the task of protecting and enhancing our beautiful country.
We know though that the habitat for flora and fauna to flourish is far from perfect, with an estimated 19 per cent loss in nature in just the last fifty years. That is why we put in law targets to halt and turn around this decline.
It is why right across England, councils are now working on local nature recovery strategies. It is why the Government is working with farmers and landowners through the Environmental Land Management Schemes to grow and nurture food and nature sustainably. To do that, the top priority has to be to preserve and improve habitats and improve our soil. One such key habitat is peatland.
Our peatlands are precious, but their importance is rarely appreciated. Making up 12 per cent of the UK’s land, our world famous fens, blanket bogs, and raised bogs provide a vital home to British wildlife, including rare species like the threatened hen harrier.
Peatlands are also our largest natural carbon store, holding approximately 3,200 tonnes of carbon. This is more than all the forests in England, Germany, and France combined.
Despite their importance to our national biodiversity, over 87 per cent of our peatlands have been destroyed, damaged, or dried up. With peatland growing at a rate of merely one millimetre a year, any amount of extraction that occurs is fundamentally unsustainable. Yes, our Conservative government has funded many restoration projects, yet peat extraction continues in the name of selling peat to unsuspecting gardeners wanting to give their plants a nutritious boost.
In the retail environment, peat products continue to be sold without being clearly labelled, hiding in potted plants and trays of bedding plants. This means that even the most environmentally-conscious gardeners, of which I know there are thousands across the UK, are rarely able to go properly peat-free, despite their best efforts and there already being alternatives on the market that compete on price and quality.
Some retailers have acted. Our world famous Kew Gardens is peat-free and was joined by B&Q last year. The Royal Horticultural Society itself supports an end to using peat in horticulture and is now 98 per cent peat-free. Despite these admirable steps, the horticultural industry as a whole still has a long way to go as a number of retailers are still selling peat and the sector still makes up 70 per cent of all peat sold in the UK.
That is why we must take action and get on with the ban of the sale of peat in retail settings to protect our countryside and consumers, which is long overdue. We started on this path over a decade ago, with a voluntary phase-out of all peat products with the pledge that failure to do so would be followed by a blanket ban. With industry already having had a decade to adapt, that is why as environment secretary I committed to a ban on peat and peat-containing products in retail stores to come into effect in 2024.
Unfortunately, we missed the boat to legislate this promise within the Environment Act. Now, with a general election on the way, the deadline to deliver on this promise in this Parliament is rapidly approaching.
It is not only gardeners we need to protect, but also British taxpayers. The Government is investing £50 million to restore our peatlands. Without addressing demand for peat, this money will be as good as wasted and progress towards protecting our environment will be hindered.
It has been 13 years since the horticultural industry was warned that its actions have consequences for our natural environment and that a Conservative government is not afraid to put things right. We now need to deliver on this commitment.
The Government has to ration the time it is allocated for primary legislation in Parliament. However, they can support Private Member’s Bills to achieve their pledges. That is why this week I am supporting Theresa Villiers’s Bill to ban the sale of peat, and I urge the Government to do the same.
