I enjoy a good Jamie Oliver-bashing, I do. I restrained myself when his Dream School took over the airwaves for all too long, but many others didn't. Not content with trying to tell me how to teach "kidz wot da system's let dahn innit", he now wants to tell me how to grow my own vegetables, and he wants me to use his compost to do so.
Firstly it's a bit over-priced, compared to what I pay for New Horizon at the garden centre. With any luck it'll simply attract the idiots at the bottom of the economic food chain in that case. But worse is the composition of the compost:
That's well over 50% (maybe getting on for 60%) peat in the fruit and vegetable growbag.
Same with the potato compost. At a time when the pressure should be (and is?) on compost manufacturers to reduce the amount of peat in their products, Jamie Oliver goes right in with more than 50% peat.
Why do I have a problem with this? Well, firstly, I'm a leftie pinko tree-hugger. I like our unique habitats. I like the endemic species of the highland and lowland peat bogs. I'd quite like them to hang around for a few million years more, until they naturally die out. I like how peat bogs are excellent carbon sinks, and how we'd be even more screwed in terms of anthropogenic global warming than we already are. Read Mark Diacono's piece for the Telegraph. See what Mr Corduroy himself, Monty Don was saying back in 2002:
Which brings me to my second point: peat-free composts are outperforming peat-based composts. They first did so in 2010, when Which? published their annual compost survey. They did so again this year, according to Hort Week, including my favourite, New Horizon. When I don't use my own compost, I buy a couple of bags of New Horizon. Does my garden look like it's suffering for the lack of peat?
Homebase have really disappointed in this regard. A few years ago they published a paper outlining their commitment to reducing peat in their compost sales. Their target was:
And in the meantime, perhaps Jamie Oliver could stop trying to tell me how to teach and how to garden? I promise, that if he goes back to just cooking stuff, I won't tell him how to do it properly.
Firstly it's a bit over-priced, compared to what I pay for New Horizon at the garden centre. With any luck it'll simply attract the idiots at the bottom of the economic food chain in that case. But worse is the composition of the compost:
That's well over 50% (maybe getting on for 60%) peat in the fruit and vegetable growbag.
Same with the potato compost. At a time when the pressure should be (and is?) on compost manufacturers to reduce the amount of peat in their products, Jamie Oliver goes right in with more than 50% peat.
Why do I have a problem with this? Well, firstly, I'm a leftie pinko tree-hugger. I like our unique habitats. I like the endemic species of the highland and lowland peat bogs. I'd quite like them to hang around for a few million years more, until they naturally die out. I like how peat bogs are excellent carbon sinks, and how we'd be even more screwed in terms of anthropogenic global warming than we already are. Read Mark Diacono's piece for the Telegraph. See what Mr Corduroy himself, Monty Don was saying back in 2002:
Every time you use a peat-based compost in the garden, you are deliberately participating in the destruction of a non-renewable environment that sustains some of our most beautiful plant and animal life. No garden on this earth is worth that.Whatever you think about his presenting of Gardeners' World, there is no doubt that Monty has no trouble with the yield of crops from his kitchen garden. Perhaps it's all the different compost recipes Monty uses for the plants with specific requirements.
Which brings me to my second point: peat-free composts are outperforming peat-based composts. They first did so in 2010, when Which? published their annual compost survey. They did so again this year, according to Hort Week, including my favourite, New Horizon. When I don't use my own compost, I buy a couple of bags of New Horizon. Does my garden look like it's suffering for the lack of peat?
Homebase have really disappointed in this regard. A few years ago they published a paper outlining their commitment to reducing peat in their compost sales. Their target was:
To ensure that by the end of 2009, 90% (by volume) of the growing media and soil conditioners sold by Homebase are peat free.How can they possibly still aim for that target given that they're selling Jamie Oliver's peat-based compost? I note that there was no peat-related target on the 2009 corporate responsibility report, but it returned in the 2009/2010 targets:
Achieve at least 60% peat-free growing media by end 2009/10 and at least 65% by end 2010/11Well, that's a bit of back-peddling and a half. It's also not clear whether this is by volume sold, by number of products available, or indeed by popularity contest. I'd love to know how Homebase are squaring their targets with their introduction of a new high peat content product, but this certainly discourages me from shopping there full stop (we were only there to buy a new toilet seat - I cannot remember when I last bought gardening products from there).
And in the meantime, perhaps Jamie Oliver could stop trying to tell me how to teach and how to garden? I promise, that if he goes back to just cooking stuff, I won't tell him how to do it properly.
Why is Jamie Oliver even getting involved in growbags?
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that the aquarium trade is also guilty of using peat too (planting media, and as a supplement to lower pH and hardness, and increase tannins for particular species) but in total quantity its far less destructive than the use in growbags.