August 25th, 2022 - Gangsta Gardening and Peat Moss the unsung Carbon Hero

I started today wanting to write a little bit about peat. There were a few twists and turns and then a surprise that you will read at the end. Before I could start about peat, I saw a post this morning on LinkedIn from Simon Sinek where he was promoting an episode from his A Bit of Optimism podcast that featured Ron Finley. That led me to read about Ron Finley and the Ron Finley Project. This is what Sinek wrote:

We live in an era in which possessions are, too often, more important than personal health and the health of our planet. That never felt right to activist, gardener, and education reformer Ron Finley. He’s been called an Eco-lutionary, a Guerrilla Gardener, the Gangsta Gardener…regardless of what you want to call him he is one thing: inspiring.

If you don't know about Ron Finley you might find his background and his project inspiring. He is a rebel with a green thumb.  In south-central Los Angeles, he teaches and does urban gardening and is addressing issues like food deserts. 

It was an unplanned detour but I did not give up on the topic of peat. A simple online search on peat led me back to a course taught by Ron Finley on Master Class. Yet another resource Rathi!

Peat moss is the dark brown fibrous product of sphagnum moss and other organic materials that decompose in peat bogs over thousands of years. It makes an excellent soil amendment to potting mix and garden soil, and mounds of peat moss can even serve as hydroponic growing media. The most common plant material in peat moss is sphagnum moss. As such, some peat moss gets marketed in stores as sphagnum peat moss. 

A feature in a recent NY Times article talked about peat is also the unsung hero of carbon capture. Although peatlands make up just 3 percent of the land on Earth, they store twice as much carbon as all of the forests combined. Forests emerged as a natural solution to address climate change but little attention is paid to peatlands the unsung heroes. A disturbed peatland however can become a carbon spewer. A protected peatland can preserve all the riches lurking in its thick brown depths: bones, butter, and world-changing stores of carbon.

It can take thousands of years to build up peat, but a matter of only a few to release its greenhouse cache once it is degraded. There are strategies being developed to rewet dried peat bogs so that they can be revived to become functional carbon sinks. Rewetting peat bogs have the potential of impacting 26-42 Giga Tons of CO2 equivalent between 2020-2050. There are regulations also being put in place in the United Kingdom to stop the harvesting of peat bogs and there are alternatives being developed for peat as a growing media. Wood fibers, coconut choir, Pitt moss that is made from recycled paper, and aged blended compost are some alternatives that are being developed and marketed. 

I hope this gives us time to pause and think about the peat being used in potted plants. 

Nature is inspiring in unpredictable ways. Today during a walk in the nearby FDR state park we saw a bald eagle resting in its nest. Just goes to talk about the resilience of nature as in 1967 they were designated as endangered species in the United States. Climate change and other factors still pose a danger but I want to end today with a Bit of Optimism. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.