Growing Organic

I realised when weeding today that recently I've written very little on the blog about the practicalities of organically growing cut flowers, we've been swept along with the glamour of photographers, websites and postcards.

When it comes to the more muddy side of the job my main preoccupation is compost! There are two types of compost in my head (probably quite literally) The first is a growing medium for seeds and young plants and the second is that what you add to the surface of the soil as a mulch to seal in moisture and smother weeds.

Cleverer people than I can make compost which is good enough to raise plants in. My composting results are usually only just good enough to be used as a soil conditioner and this is something I need to work on over the next few years.

For seed sowing and potting then I need to buy in compost. Peat has previously been a bit of a guilty secret that I had carried around with me. The extraction of peat both from the Somerset levels on our doorstep and from the Baltic States and Russia is directly destroying what remains of the lowland raised peat bogs which are a unique habitat supporting thousands of species which are not found anywhere else.

I was quite suprised when we joined the Soil Association to find that they do allow the use of peat in propagating media although they recommend that alternatives are used where possible. I was determined to be rid my guilt and find an alternative. At first it all seemed very daunting and looked as if it was going to involve buying in ingredients like composted bark chippings, perlite, grit and some kind of approved base fertiliser. I was prepared to give it a go but was worried about making expensive mistakes with the ingredients and ending up with no plants at all.

Then I found Fertile Fibre.....it's fantastic! It's based on Coir which is a waste product from the coconut industry and actually performs better than any peat based compost I've ever used. It doesn't dry out particularly quickly which is the usual concern with coir and all 5000 of my plants this spring look very happy in it. They do a seed compost which is finely shredded and a potting compost which contains a bit more composted bark.

I suppose the downside (and there usually is one) is that the coir is shipped in from Sri Lanka but I can't help think that this has got to be better than shipping in unsustainable peat from Russia.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that, so if you still have a peat habit then now you know how to kick it.
Jo x