We were delighted to support the Peat Free Partnership delegation to Westminster in February – to call on the government to #EndPeatSales.

Alternative text should describe the visual content of the image. — Sally Nex from the Peat Free Partnership hands in the petition to Downing Street. Credit: PA

We helped make your voice heard on peat-free growing by being part of the group that handed in a petition to Downing Street on 25 February – signed by thousands of supporters.

Accompanied by our new friend the mysterious ‘Bog Creature’ (pictured below), the delegation of six stepped through the iconic gates to hand in the 16,700 signatures to government. Delegates included RHS director general Clare Matterson, Riverford Organic Farmers’ founder Guy Singh-Watson, Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex, and The Wildlife Trust’s Matt Browne.

We’re very grateful to everyone who signed and shared the petition. Garden Organic has been campaigning for an end to peat use in horticulture for decades (see timeline below), and this is solid proof of public support for legislation to #EndPeatSales. We hope it will finally make the government act to safeguard our precious peatlands.

Sally said: “The Peat Free Partnership has already demonstrated strong support from the horticulture industry - and politicians across the political spectrum have spoken out in favour of legislation. Now the people have spoken too. We’ll keep working to make sure the UK Government listens.”

The petition remains open, along with the opportunity to write to your MP by following the link here so please continue to share and lobby.

For more information on the damage done by extracting peat from peatlands, and peat-free growing advice click here.

The long, sad history of the battle to get peat removed from horticulture

•    The 1960s The UKs peat extraction scales up for the horticultural industry.
•    1970s Conservationist David Bellamy raised the issue of peat bog damage.
•    1990 A consortium of 14 leading wildlife and archaeological conservation organisations launched the Peatlands Campaign to emphasise the damage caused by peat-based industries, and to promote the use of alternatives.
•    1999 The UK Biodiversity Action Plan said 90% of the UK growing-media/soil improvers market should be peat free by 2010, but the industry failed to meet the target.
•    2011 A natural environment white paper proposed ending the use of peat in England in the garden and hobby market by 2020, and the commercial horticulture sector by 2030. Garden Organic launches the I Don’t Dig Peat campaign, generating significant public awareness around the issue and pushing for change. A Sustainable Growing Media Task Force was set up with a target of getting results by 2015.
•    2015 The target was missed.
•    2019 A revised deadline was created for the end of this year. Garden Organic launches a second campaign, For Peat's Sake, in order to keep pressure on the industry.
•    2020 The government and horticultural industry still not banning peat. The Sustainable Growing Media Task Force still deliberating.
•    2021 The government announces its Peatlands Strategy. Industry, at last, is beginning to heed the call for peat-free growing mediums. But they are putting the onus on the consumer without addressing professional growers.
•    March 2022 The government launches a public consultation on ‘Ending the retail sale of peat in horticulture in England and Wales.’ Responses were 95 per cent in favour of ending peat sales for gardeners.
•    August 2022 The government announce the sale of peat for use in the amateur gardening sector will be banned by 2024 to protect peatlands and the natural environment.
•    November 2022 Welsh government triples its peatland restoration targets.
•    February 2023 Scottish ministers launch a new consultation on peat use, as part of plans to ban sales of peat in the country.
•    March 2023 Defra confirms it will be banning peat use by the professional horticulture sector by 2026 – but with exemptions that could see plug plants contain peat until 2030.
•    2024 The Government once again misses its own deadline to ban peat sales for the amateur gardening sector.
•    November 2025 The UK Government announces it intends to introduce legislation to end the sale of peat in its Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, published 29 October. This is tangible progress towards giving horticultural businesses a sense of the Government’s policy direction in protecting irreplaceable peatlands, however, it only commits to legislation “when Parliamentary time allows” which fails to give any certainty. On 19 November, as part of the Peat Free Partnership we launched a campaign to #EndPeatSales once and for all.
•    February 2026 As part of the Peat Free Partnership, we supported taking the petition, which included almost 17K signatures, to Downing Street to call for an end to peat sales.