Soap Box Time

Sigh. I know I used peat-pots to start these tomatoes. But here's the thing: They are excellent at what they do. And they're fairly small.

Why do I sound so apologetic? Well, the sad fact is, the peat moss we all know and love used to be something's home, and worse, was our natural brita filter. Now it's in our garden. Does it do wonders, enriching the soil and helping to retain moisture? Absolutely. But the reality is, that peat moss was harvested from Canadian peat bogs, home to many wonderful animals. Also peat bogs naturally filter our fresh water (we have the most in the world, you know), as it passes through the bogs. While peat bogs regenerate faster then, say, a rainforest, we are still harvesting at a far faster rate then they can come back.

What does this mean? Without intentional intervention, our peat bogs will be lost. Goodbye to their inhabitants, and their free clean-up of our water. They are currently considered an endangered eco-system.

So in this picture is somebody's ridiculously simple, yet good, idea: Beats Peat. A peat moss alternative. What is it? Specifically, it's the hair off coconut shells. This is a by-product of the coconut industry, so some smart person said "Hey, instead of just chucking that stuff out (and probably paying to have it taken away), I'll take it from you, and turn it into a really cool peat moss alternative." And that's all there is to it. One bag of compressed product, when soaked in 39 litres of water, becomes 3 cubic feet of soil additive. And it only costs about $7 at the Home Depot. I potted 41 pots today and used 1.5 peices of the 4 squares of material in one package (mixed 1:1 with black earth). I'm not saying never touch peat moss again (remember I used peat pots?), I'm just saying, whe you can, consider an alternative.

Thanks to the really smart people who are doing their best to keep us from killing ourselves.