Penrith company wins gold award at Chelsea Flower Show by showing the impact of gardening using peat

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A group from near Penrith won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower show for their efforts to raise awareness of the impact gardening using peat compost has on the environment.

Bolton Fell Moss, near Longtown, has just featured at the famous flower show in London, in a display trying to wean gardeners off using peat.

Peat is one of the best ways to capture carbon and prevent global warming, but millions of tons of CO2 has been released over the past 50 years from peat extracted for the horticulture industry in the UK.

Simon Bland is from Dalefoot Compost which was behind the project.

He told ITV Border sphagnum moss, which is found at the bog near Longtown, is vital as it stores more carbon than the woodland in the UK.

He said: "We were asked by the RHS to have a stand in the discovery area.

"It's about educating people about why we shouldn't be using peat, and why peat bogs are so important for the habitat.

"It's about the effects that people will have on the climate and helping to improve the situation as far as climate change."

Before heading to the flower show, Dalefoot Composts had to get a special license to transport pieces of the bog to the capital for their display.

This is because Bolton Fell Moss is a restored lowland peat bog within a National Nature Reserve.

Jane Barker, from the company, said: "We carefully selected deep sections of peat in small amounts.

"Then, we had to take hundreds of litres of bog water down to keep it in pristine condition while it was on the stand and look after it and mist it so that people could still see it in its best state."

Dalefoot Composts makes its own non-peat compost from a variety of things including a mixture of sheep's will bracken.

It hopes that making peat-free compost will help stop peat extraction.

The practise is not currently illegal, however, the government has pledged to ban the use of peat in horticulture in England and Wales by the end of this current parliament.

At Bolton Fell Moss, peat extraction stopped nine years ago after Natural England bought the 450 hectare site.

Next year, the public will be able to walk around the nature reserve on a mile long raised boardwalk.

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