permaculture

[Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>]

Though peat moss is an "unsustainable" product for soil mixes, it is the
most accessible resource for people to get growing. I much rather people use
a little bit of peat moss if it makes it easier and more straightforward to
learn how to produce food. Most folks in urban and suburban areas don't need
to be told to buy a hundred and one special, unique, and expensive products
just because they are "unsustainable". Driving is "unsustainable".  Flying
around the world to teach permaculture is "unsustainable". Buying vegetable
seeds from thousands of miles away is "unsustainable". But we gotta start
somewhere!

I personally, love my Fox Farm Ocean Forest and wouldn't trade it for
coconut coir any day. There are plenty of other good soil mix recipes that
don't call for peat. Horse manure and stable rakings when composted in cool
temps with low moisture makes a very peat like texture for example!

I buy one bag of soil mix every two years for home garden use. I can think
of dozens of other unecologically sound habits that we all could change to
generate a much deeper impact than going cold turkey on peat moss. I guess
we all gotta draw the line in different places though.