How many times in your life have you driven to the garden centre for a bag of potting soil? In the Netherlands, the majority of potting soil contains peat. Did you know? Potting soil with peat is not at all good for your garden and is also disastrous for the climate! So while you thought you were being nice and sustainable and environmentally friendly with your plants and your hands in soil, there was actually a lot wrong. So what is wrong with potting soil and what are some good alternatives?
Sustainable gardening without peat
So most potting soil contains peat. Peat comes from drained peat bogs and it is precisely the extraction of peat that is disastrous for the climate. You have to compare peat bogs to the rainforest. They also store an awful lot of CO2, all of which is released when they are destroyed. Because the peat bogs in the Netherlands are protected, we import it from other countries and because of this, our potting soil also has considerable hidden mileage.
What's wrong with potting soil?
Composted plants and mosses, derived from peatlands, cause significant greenhouse gas storage worldwide. To extract peat, peatlands are destroyed and this causes 5 to 7% of global CO2 emissions. That is a whopping twice more than all global air traffic! Peatlands store 44% of all carbon. To give you an idea, that's more than in all forests. When the peat bog dies due to excavation, the stored carbon is released. In short, digging up peat contributes to global warming, and not by much. And so that makes potting soil with peat a bad idea. Especially when you know we can do without it. But alas, not everyone thinks so...
The Netherlands is the largest user of peat in Europe. We import 4.7 million cubic metres of peat from other countries every year. Digging it up is bad, but we shouldn't discount the CO2 emissions from transport either. We import it because peatlands in the Netherlands are protected. So excavation is prohibited here. Why do we import so much? Indeed, it is not just for our backyards. By far the majority of potting soil with peat is intended for the horticultural sector: 80% of the peat is for their account.
Incredible: peatlands cover only 3% of the world's land, but they store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests combined!
What exactly are peatlands and why are they important?
Just a step back. So peat comes from peatlands that we should think of as rainforests, but not above but below ground. Rainforests also store a lot of carbon and we want to leave that underground too to stop global warming. The term ‘peatland’ refers to the peat soil and the wetland habitats growing on the surface. Peatlands are crucial for a number of things:
- Peatlands store a lot of carbon. If it is released, it causes CO2 emissions. So we should stay away from peatlands to stop climate change.
- By preserving peatlands, we also preserve biodiversity. For instance, the 60% decline in the Borneo orangutan population within 60 years is largely attributed to the loss of peat swamp habitat. The species now stands as seriously threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.
- With peatlands, we minimise flood risks, we can better manage drought and it prevents seawater intrusion.
- Peatlands preserve air quality because wet peatlands lower the ambient temperature in surrounding areas. Peatlands thus provide shelter from extreme heat and are less likely to burn during forest fires.
- Ensuring safe drinking water. Draining peatlands reduces the quality of drinking water because the water becomes contaminated with organic carbon and pollutants that belong in the peat.
How is peat actually extracted?
We now know what peatland is, but how is peat actually extracted? What I learned about it is that the peat bog is first drained. This can take several years, only then can excavators excavate the area. When the peat is dug off, they often flood it again. The bog is then totally destroyed. Peatlands have existed since the last Ice Age. That's ten thousand years back. Peatlands grow very slowly, on average one metre per thousand years.
Sustainable gardening: what can you do?
The solution for our gardens is surprisingly simple: don't use potting soil with peat! Moreover, this is also much better for your garden. It is actually not a suitable product for the consumer market at all. It is acidic (which is bad for many plants) and there is no life in it. Moreover, after three months the added nutrients are already depleted. For garden and indoor plants, therefore, use peat-free soil, is the advice. So it is not that complicated. My tip for people who want to garden more sustainably: take a critical look at the bag of potting soil in your shed and leave it if it contains peat. Because as long as it is sold, it will be made.
Left: getting started with a worm hotel to make your own compost from vegetable, fruit and garden (GFT) waste and right: visiting a large worm farm where compost has already been made by the worms.
Sustainable alternatives to potting soil
- There are also peat-free options based on coconut fibre, wood chips or Italian rice husks.
- An even better alternative is to use leaf mould, composted leaves.
- If potting soil is not labelled as peat-free, the main ingredient is probably peat. Even if it is organic potting soil, this absolutely means not That there is no peat in it!
- Ask your local garden centre if they will put peat-free products on their shelves. You can make a big difference!
- Start composting yourself! Leave GFT waste to rot in the garden, for example in a wooden crate or plastic compost bin (just a pile in the corner of your garden will do as well). Every time you have some VGF waste, throw something on top and once every six weeks, turn it over. After about nine months, you have a wonderful peat-free soil improver. Proprietary compost isn't called ‘the black gold’ for nothing. If you don't have much space, you can also start small with a Bokashi bucket.
- Plant trees: every year a tree grows, it stores carbon. A fully grown oak tree contains as much as eight tonnes of carbon!
- The more vegetation, the more carbon you store, so tiles out and greenery in!
- Tips for peat-free potting soil can be found in this article. We have made a list of better potting soil options.
More sustainable gardening tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Also see: butterfly man Nicky shares tips on how to take good care of butterflies.
- Also see: help nature, buy poison-free plants!
- Also see: mulching for beginners: what is it and what are the benefits?
- Also see: From organic waste to compost: how does it work?
Sources: IUCN, Wed , Parole, peat-free.nl, Dave Goulson - the garden jungle. Photo credits: main image Karolina Grabowska (Pexels), other: thegreenlist.nl.
