Some 65 gardeners many representing plant societies  ,parks and allotment associations met at STC on Thursday 16 th Feb (Click Here to view the agenda)

Judging from emails and personal conversations the speakers and subject matter were given the thumbs up with requests for further events .

Comments in the final open forum were that the information that they were receiving in gardening press  did not match that they had received from the experts on the day . In other words there was spin in the peat debate from all fractions, and it was difficult to assess why they could not buy reliable products and why they were being painted as the leading environment damagers  .

Pleas were made for much more information on the packs of compost although Christine Walkden did extract ,doing her talk ,admissions that many gardeners did not read the instructions . Basically they assumed because of the PR that the new composts would behave like peat  and they were not prewarned of the new skills required . Julian Davies reported from his many years trialling that nutrition was a greater problem than watering, and in particular composts based on green compost and to some extend wood residues needed to be freshly made , as the continuing composting process during distribution chain wrapped up the nitrogen . He warned about buying  wet and heavy bags and he preferred garden centres where composts were stored under cover . There were questions on how gardeners could contact Defra to express their views on Government Policy .