Peat-free gardening
Aylett Nurseries Peat-ometer on its point of sale for Westland Multi-Purpose Compost with added John Innes is a simple device to help customers make buying decisions.
Encouraging customers to make the switch While we wait for the results of the DEFRA consulation on peat, the industry is gearing up for the expected ban on retail sales of peat products. That means we must make sure our increasing numbers of gardening customers are able to cope with peat free growing and get levels of success that encourage them to carry on gardening over the coming years.
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s growing media sales continue to increase, latest GTN Bestsellers data shows volume sales up by 2.3% on 2021 and a whopping 24.3% up on the prepandemic levels of 2019, we asked a range of garden centres how peat free growing media sales were performing for them, which gardeners were choosing to buy peat free and which questions were they being asked about peat free gardening. We also asked if they would be looking for more products with a sustainable story when they attend the trade shows this summer. The photos with this article come from Aylett Nurseries, which in our opinion, has been leading the way in growing media point of sale material with its Peat-o-meter so customers can make a clear choice about which growing media to buy. Thanks to Ayletts and all the other garden centres who have helped with
4 GTN’s Sustainability Directory 2022
content for this article. We hope it provides useful information for your peat free gardening retail journey and if you have something you’d like to add, please e-mail trevor@pottingshedpress. co.uk and we’ll include that in future issues of GTN and the GTN Sustainability Directory. We start with feedback from Duncan McClean, Senior Buyer, RHS Garden Centres: “We’ve had a very positive response from the public since we moved away from peat-based bagged growing media in 2019. Sales of compost have increased dramatically in recent years as people become more and more interested in gardening, so it’s even more important the RHS are able to offer responsibly sourced options with only new peat-free growing medias. “Eighty two percent of respondents to our latest survey stated that they were concerned about the environment, and sustainability is high on the agenda of many gardeners.
“Purchasing of peat-free is across the board, from beginners to experienced gardeners. These gardeners said they have had a positive experience growing healthy plants with the new peat-free growing medias. Duncan told GTN the commonly asked questions of the RHS about peat-free growing include: Queries on watering and water holding capacity of peat-free vs peat-containing growing media. Content of peat-free growing media, and whether peat-free alternatives are sustainable. Feeding and need for nutritional supplements Effectiveness and availability of peat-free growing media mixes to grow certain ‘difficult’ plant groups, e.g., carnivorous, ericaceous, proteaceous.
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