I just read an interesting post at Garden Rant, by guest ranter Ken Druse about the use of peat moss in our gardens. I’ve been following the growing debate about the effectiveness of peat moss as a soil amendment and must admit I used to use it years ago when planting or transplanting trees and shrubs in my garden. Like many gardeners, I just bought a bale of the spaghnum peat moss at the nursery when I bought my new plants. Thinking about it now it was probably because the staff would ask me if I needed any for my new plants.
Several years ago, I stopped using peat moss as a soil amendment and instead started adding compost from our cold compost pile located in the far corner of our yard. It’s hidden behind a fence and it’s decomposes on it’s own schedule. Even though it’s taken years to build up, there is always compost ready and waiting when I need it. I’d like to be able to say I turned to compost for the ecological benefits of not using peat moss but in all honesty I thought why pay for peat moss when I have free compost.
Mr. Druse’s post reminds us that we need to think about all the products we’ve been using in our gardens for years. We’re so conditioned now to be skeptical of ‘green’ , ’sustainable’ or ‘renewable’ claims made by new products that we sometimes forget to shine the same light on our old stand-bys.
