An Eden firm has been awarded a gold medal at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show for its display highlighting the importance of peatlands to the climate.
Dalefoot Composts, based in Heltondale near Penrith, and the Eden Project used a small piece of Cumbrian peatland on loan under special licence from Natural England in the display at the world-famous RHS event.
In the Discovery Zone display at the world’s most famous flower show, gardeners were invited ‘to step into’ Bolton Fell Moss National Nature Reserve, a restored Cumbrian bog previously used to harvest peat for horticulture, to experience the secrets, sounds and beauty of these enormous bog gardens.
They have been able to hear sounds from a peatland – curlews, lapwing, the hum of billions of insects and the occasional squelch – while getting up close to the fascinating bog plants – sphagnum mosses, cotton grass, cranberries, and heathers.
The peatland display has been given expert care by the Dalefoot team to make sure it remains hydrated and will be returned to its natural home once Chelsea has finished.
The aim of the exhibit is to demonstrate the importance of peat bogs and the environmental damage gardeners are causing to our planet by using peat compost in their outdoor spaces.
Professor Jane Barker is the co-founder of Dalefoot Composts which is a major manufacturer of peat-free compost and a leading restorer of damaged peatlands, including the nature reserve.
She said: “We’re absolutely thrilled by this award and so pleased that peat-free gardening is being recognised in this way. I hope people visiting our special piece of Cumbrian peatland will come away understanding why using peat is no longer acceptable, and how easy it is to make simple climate friendly switches in your garden.”
Alongside the peatland, a potager of vegetables and companion planting grown by gold-medal-winning Pennard Plants, illustrated what gardeners can achieve in their own plot by switching to peat-free gardening. All of the plants have been grown in Dalefoot Compost’s peat-free products which are Soil Association-approved for organic growing.
The timeline of a bog was illustrated in the RHS Chelsea exhibit to show the thousands of years peat represents. Peat grows at only 1mm per year and this is contrasted to the bags of peat compost it yields and the short season of growth that peat gives gardeners.
Peatlands only occupy about three per cent of the Earth’s land surface but are the largest terrestrial carbon store on the planet. UK peatlands cover around 12% of its land area and store 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon, more than twice that of the UK’s forests*, as well as being very important habitats for biodiversity.
Whilst the Government has set targets for peatland restoration and is currently consulting on a peat ‘ban’, in amateur gardening there remains a significant resistance to switching to peat-free and it is predicted even more peat could be used in the future. Of the 5.44 million cubic metres of growing media used in 2020, 79 per cent was used by amateur gardeners.
Two-thirds of peat sold in the UK is from Europe, meaning we are effectively exporting our carbon footprint. Voluntary targets set for peat sellers have had little impact and the new target of ending peat sales by 2024 is being questioned for being too slow and not enough.
This is the latest initiative by Dalefoot Composts and the Eden Project to promote the sustainability benefits of peat-free gardening.
Dalefoot supported six show gardens and exhibits at RHS Chelsea with its peat-free compost – The New Blue Peter Garden: Discover Soil by Juliet Sargeant; Brewin Dolphin Garden by Paul Hervey-Brookes; The Mothers for Mothers – This Too Shall Pass Garden by Pollyanna Wilkinson; The Wild Kitchen Garden by Ann Treneman; RHS Queen’s Jubilee Photographic Exhibit by Dave Green, and the Animal and Plant Health Agency – Don’t Risk It! exhibit.
Two of the company’s peat-free composts were also finalists in the RHS Chelsea Sustainable Garden Product of the Year 2022 – Wool Compost for Potting and Wool Compost Double Strength.
