I was in our local garden centre looking for mulch - which they didn’t have - I need to go to Gamm vert for that - but while I was there I saw a large pack of “Tourbe Blonde” which told me it was good for aerating soil and retaining moisture, which seemed like a good idea and I bought a 70l pack.
I got home and checked on Deepl to find I have bought “blond peat”
I have not bought peat products knowingly in the UK for over 35 years. I’m not thrilled to find I’ve bought it so easily here in France. I would have thought the same scenario would have applied in France - that we are destroying a key habitat that needs preserving and that it is unethical to buy it.
Tourbe blond is sphagnum moss, and I think cultivated. So you are not destroying large areas of lithuania. As long as it is sustainably farmed moss of course.
Tourbe is peat, not sphagnum moss; it is partially decomposed over a long period of time.
Here is a portion of the Wikipedia entry for ‘tourbe’:
“Considering that the average annual peat accumulation is about 1 mm, the formation of peat takes place over several thousand years. On a human scale, peat is not a renewable product in the same way as other fossil fuels and its use tends to deplete resources.
A biologist, I was involved in efforts to preserve peat lands in Western Canada. The damage is real and lasting, all over the world but especially Northern Europe where your product likely came from.
And peat is formed from plants, including sphagnum moss. There is a difference .
Sphagnum moss peat and peat begin life the same way, from the same plant. Sphagnum moss is a living plant when harvested, but when we purchase it, it has been thoroughly dried.
Peat moss, often labeled “Sphagnum Peat Moss,” is quite different, though. It begins its life as sphagnum moss. Over time the sphagnum moss dies and is over-grown by new sphagnum moss. This is repeated over and over, and after hundreds or even thousands of years these many layers of dead sphagnum moss form a bog. This layer of dead, compacted moss is now called peat.
Whereas sphagnum moss has a neutral pH, peat moss is very acidic and is high in tannins.
Depending on the source of the sphagnum moss it can be more or less sustainable. Some is harvested by destroying tourbière but increasingly it is farmed.
