This is a thread about the toxicity that permeates the UK #gardening & #horticulture industries. In the current issue of @GWmag @TheMontyDon pointed out that retailers are ‘actively choosing to do harm’ if they sell peat, peat-based compost or plants grown in peat. He was stating

the obvious. It’s a scientific fact that peat bogs release their stored carbon when they are drained & mined. FACT. More carbon means more #climatechaos. Carbon set free by its use in #gardening doesn’t hide away. It’s all driving our #ClimateEmergency. @TheMontyDon was saying

in plain terms, that if your an industry that’s still digging up peat and releasing carbon, and adding to #ClimateBreakdown, then you’re part of the problem we all share. Let’s not forget that no gardener needs peat to succeed & that modern & reliable #peatfree mixes exist, and

some are used by *hundreds* of commercial growers. Let’s also not forget that in the UK around 70% of peat is used by *gardeners*, not growers. So @TheMontyDon points out what many of us have been highlighting for as long as. But Monty has a profile & for the first time in a

while, an industry that’s doing the wrong thing by our natural world, seemed to panic – probably because the last thing the #gardening & horticulture industries want is any attention bringing to the fact that their activities are contributing directly to #climatechaos. This is

despite decades of dither, delay & controlling the narrative on the urgent need to turn #gardening truly greener by switching to #peatfree composts. @TheMontyDon then points out they’re part of the problem (something an entire industry seems unable to work out for itself) and

an entire industry reacts violently when it realises it has lost control of the narrative & word might get out that #gardening might not be as green as it’s made out to be. ‘We can’t have all those millions of folk out buying bags of dirt finding out what’s actually in them…’

And that’s where the invective aimed at @TheMontyDon begins, both for stating the bleeding obvious and for reaching a huge audience with the message. You can search for the tedium-infused blather from #horticulture’s mouthpieces, but perhaps the one which will give you a proper