@alan refail

As John Walker remains mute

*Edited*

Some of us still have our day jobs to attend to and try to respond as and when we can.

These threads are getting too long winded and yet again personal. Please keep posts sensible length and polite


KGAdmin

@Geoff Many thanks for your reply. Significant is a matter of scale, in several different ways. Being surrounded as I am by thousands of acres of wet peaty land used for Grouse shooting and a few Sheep makes me realise that the area used for extraction is a small fraction of the total peat lands, o...

@John Thanks for your reply. "The science on this is very clear i.e. harvesting peat bogs releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (previously stored in the peat) which is the primary driver of climate disruption." The science of this is not very clear to me I'm afraid. Where is all thi...

@alan refail I had thought to follow your advice and send my queries to RSPB, but I doubt there will be reliable reply if they can't agree on their base figures! Hmm. Isn't that rather the point of contacting the RSPB and asking them - to find out why their figures, in your view, don't match up? Bu...

@Johnboy Dearie me. Can I say again, hopefully for the last time, that I answered your question on 10.2.11. Unfortunately, it seems it's not the answer you wanted, so you've risked making yourself look increasingly foolish by persisting in this petty attempt to undermine everything I say and dispar...

@alan refail Have you read the 'Greening UK Gardens' report or the information in the government's 'Consultation on reducing the horticultural use of peat in England'? These might just have answers, in whole or in part, to your questions. Failing that, have you thought about asking the RSPB (or oth...

The closing date for the government's peat consultation is Friday 11th March, 2011. All submissions must be in by then.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consu ... /index.htm

This is a much-viewed thread and I'm interested to know how many forum members are planning to or have already responded? Please PM me if you prefer.

@Monica Well, that puts my mind at rest, Alan - I no longer feel guilty in continuing to use peat-based compost! I'm interested in why you should actually feel guilty about using peat. Surely your choice would be better made based on the known facts about the ecologically damaging processes involve...

@Geoff Thanks for your comments. As for Tweeting for peat I'll have to find a way of expressing my view that phasing out horticultural peat is about as environmentally ridiculous and marginal as phasing out tungsten light bulbs I'm interested in what reasons you can offer to back that up (can we st...

@Colin Miles As far as I can see Johnboy's hectoring and badgering behaviour wasn't directed at the Soil Association. If Shorrocks's now dated findings had rocked the pesticide debate to its foundations, how come no one I've asked has ever heard of him? As to the discussion about the decline of bee...

@Johnboy I give all my comments plenty of thought before I post them. Candles are used in rhubarb forcing sheds precisely because they give off just the amount and quality of light to coax the sticks gently into growth without turning them green, and just enough illumination for the harvesters to w...

Candles are used as an integral part of growing a forced rhubarb crop: The candles do more than guide the pickers’ path. Once inside the dark sheds, where the rhubarb is kept at a temperature of 13C, the naked flames perform a clever trick. Each stalk of rhubarb, after two weeks in the pitch black e...

There's a diverse conversation underway on the thread 'Government consultation on phasing out peat use' with nearly 1800 views - evidence that this subject is of great interest to many forum members (http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9202). But anyone finding government do...

My apologies to PLUMPUDDING and Primrose for mixing you up in my previous comment I was of course referring to PLUMPUDDING's comment of 24.2. @Johnboy I'm sorry that your last unconstructive comment only serves to reinforce the points I made in my previous one. You still haven't been able to place y...

The response to this Which? Gardening report is fascinating on a number of different levels. I've struggled to find any justification for Johnboy's peculiar outburst against organic gardening. It's clear to me that he appears not to have even read the information on the initial link provided, or the...