Gardeners need to find an alternative to peat IS IT possible that 2021 is the year when the use of peat in gardening and the horticultural industry becomes a mainstream issue The portents of this horticulture war can already be seen in the Republic and in Britain. Couple this with the growth of interest in all things green-fingered and we can reasonably expect the exploitation of our peat bogs to become the next cause célèbre. In November, Monty Don attracted the ire of gardening traditionalists and representatives of the horticulture industry when he used Gardeners' World magazine to urge garden centres not to stock peat or plants grown in peat, arguing that its extraction is not especially good for the environment.