During a recent garden centre industry event hosted by growers Bransford, New Leaf and Frank P Matthews, a number of attendees expressed frustration at the lack of clarity from the government about moving to peat-free growing media and called for the establishment of a peat-free logo to aid consumer awareness.
The growers, including David Chilvers, sales director Bransford Garden Plants; David Higginson, owner New Leaf Plants; and Matthew Thomas, sales director at Frank P Matthews are generally working to become peat-free by 2026 discussed a number of issues, including the ‘fear is that customers do not realise how they need to adapt when using peat free compost and will blame themselves for failures.’
In response to a query from some of the 50 attendees at the event, the panel agreed that a universal peat-free logo should be created to help customers. However, on social media Steve Harper, CEO at growing media supplier Southern Trident and chair of the Responsible Sourcing Scheme warned against creating additional schemes.
“Join the Responsible Sourcing Scheme and use our logo,” he said on LinkedIn. “It show that whatever you are using now to replace peat has been responsibly sourced. Moreover, the logo is already being picked up by manufacturers, retailers, growers and – most importantly – used by consumers. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Join the scheme now.”