FAQ Page

For many years we have wanted to move Peat Free and as back as far as 20 years ago we trialled various mixes. However we found most bark based mixes didn’t work well with the sandbeds which are the backbone of our watering system. This system enables us to use drastically less water than overhead watering, both environmentally better and a saver of our sanity. We’ve tried Coir ( and never saw the wisdom of hauling it half way around the planet ) and composted green waste which cooked a whole crop of Dawn’s Cardiocrinums because it was under composted (she was not happy ! ).

Last year, however, we came upon a mix that suited us well and since the beginning of the 2024 season we have ceased to buy any peat. As a propagating nursery, much of our stock goes round and round in circles as it is split year on year. As such there could be a peat element in any pot for years to come and we may never be truly ‘peat free’. What we won’t be doing is adding any more peat in future years. We do also buy in a small amount of liners and plugs each season and we’ll take a pragmatic approach to this also, buying peat free if we can, but accepting peat if we can’t.

I hope this clarifies our position.

Martin 2025

Spray Usage

We try to operate our nursery with the lightest spray touch we can consistent with producing a good plant. We have to spray to control fungal problems such as mildew, which we do only at need and aphids are dealt with on a spot spraying basis if they become a problem. Dawn will sometimes spray plants just before they are dispatched if she thinks they need a little protection, but on the whole we try to keep spraying to an absolute minimum. The nursery is full of birds and bees and dragonflies, newts and toads and they all play their part in keeping a balance. In our youth we saw many more butterflies around the nursery and joining the crowd and adding neonicotinoids to the compost for a while I’m sure added to their demise. I’m glad they have been banned. So, we check all our plants before they go out, but we can’t guarantee then to be 100% wildlife free. We always strive to send out a good, sound healthy plant and ask you to overlook the odd hole in favour of a healthy environment. I’ll end with a little Joni Mitchell from Big Yellow Taxi

Peat Usage

At the moment we use a compost that is 3/4 peat and 1/4 composted bark, which is a mix we have developed over the years. Over the next few years we are going to try to transition to a peat free mix to mitigate the environmental consequences of peat extraction. Over the years we have tried several peat free mixes. Over 20 years ago we tired Coir. It had many of the properties we needed, but is stubbornly alkaline and we really don’t think that transporting bulk materials from the far East is the way we should go if we are thinking environmentally. We tried a green waste mix one year with disastrous consequences. Despite the marketing hype, the product was just so dense and so hot that we lost plants by the hundred. Wool and bracken composts appeal but are in not readily available in quantity, which bring us down to the commercial wood waste mixes. Unfortunately these mixes don’t draw water from sandbeds like peat which will be a big challenge to the way our nursery works, but I think this is the way w will be going.

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When writing extra information about plants on this site I have included lots of bits of historical fact and herbal uses of many plants. All of these facts I have included purely for entertainment and interest and in no way should they be taken as genuine herbal or medical advice. To make it abundantly clear, I have no specialist knowledge whatsoever, I just like passing on curious facts I have read. I have deliberately kept the comments light and vague so that you can enjoy the fact that people used to use the poisonous Aquilega as a food decoration, but won’t be tempted to try the same mistake yourself. If these facts pique your interest, please do contact a trained herbalist to learn more before you are tempted to try any plant in a medicinal role.

With no particular spin I’ll just pass on this last piece of valuable advice, originally written by Culpepper and to be found in the sorts of books I have been reading, I think you’ll find the logic hard to argue against;

‘They say a mouse is under the dominion of the Moon, and that is the reason they feed in the night; the house of the Moon is cancer; rats are of the same nature with mice, but a little bigger; Mars receives his fall in Cancer, ergo, Wormwood being an herb of Mars is a present remedy for the biting of rats and mice.’

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