Peat is a very beneficial product to use in the veg patch and more often than not it is one of the key ingredients that you’ll find in a bag of compost. But it comes at a huge cost to the environment.
Most peat is sourced from naturally occurring peat bogs. These bogs have taken centuries to form and they play a really important role in our eco-system, creating areas of biodiversity and lowering carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Sadly, it doesn’t take long for us to deplete them and mess things up. As far as we understand, we’ve lost something like 95% of our peat bogs in the UK.
So, when we decided to stock compost this year, we went on a bit of a mission to find one that we were happy to promote from an ethical and environmental perspective. We decided that the way forwards was Moorland Gold Compost. This compost is approved organic by the Soil Association and contains peat from a much better and harmless source.
Moorland Gold’s peat comes as a by-product of water collection in the Pennines. The water rolls down the mountainside and collects peat particles as it trickles down. At the bottom the water is filtered into a reservoir and the peat particles are separated off. That’s what they use for the compost. Brilliant! We’re really pleased to be stocking this compost knowing that there’s been no messing with precious peat bogs. Well done Moorland Gold!