It often seems that more and more gardens are being covered over by hard landscaping or artificial grass, leaving them as wildlife deserts. So laying a new lawn should be heralded as a wonderful act for nature. However, across our region areas of lowland peatland that have been drained and converted to agriculture are now being used to grow garden turf.

As soon as a peatland is drained, the carbon that is stored within the peat oxidises and is released into the atmosphere as CO₂, exacerbating the climate emergency. When that peatland is then used to grow turf, not only is it releasing huge amounts of carbon, but we are also losing the peat itself even faster, as with each harvest of the turf a layer approximately 5cm deep of the peat is taken up too.

How much carbon is released from turf grown on peat?

A recent Natural England report, the Greater Manchester Peat Pilot, shows that turf production on the Chat Moss peatland in Greater Manchester is currently responsible for 160.64 tonnes of CO2-e per hectare per year – the same as 411,808 miles driven by an average car.

In fact, a 10m x 10m lawn laid from this turf has the same carbon footprint as a seat on a return flight from Manchester to New York.

What is even more scary is that the carbon released from turf production is more than four times the rate of emissions of the next highest emission land use, cropland, at 38.98 tonnes CO2-e per hectare per year.

How did our peatlands end up growing turf?

Historically lowland peatlands were seen as wastelands, and so during the Industrial Revolution many were drained and converted to agriculture growing much of the food required to feed the burgeoning city populations. At the time this was applauded, however, we now know just how much damage this causes.

As the carbon from the peat is released into the atmosphere, this also reduces the amount of peat itself. Over time this has reduced from over 6m of the original Chat Moss lowland raised peat bog, to approximately 1m of peat left remaining today. This remaining peat is also of lower and lower quality, making it more and more difficult to farm traditional arable and vegetable crops. Faced with decreasing yields, many farmers have been forced to look for alternative crops, and turf attracts a high price.

Unfortunately, we know just how high that price is for our climate.

What can you do?

If you are looking to lay a new lawn, then the simplest and safest method is to use grass seed – and why not add a few wildflower seeds too? Grass seed is cheap and easily available, and whilst you do not get the instant impact of turf, a new lawn will develop quicker than you think. Grass seed is also the easiest way to repair any patches in an existing lawn, simply rake the damaged area and sow the seed and the new grass will knit in with the existing to create a lovely lawn in no time.

However, if you do wish to use turf then we recommend contacting the retailer and asking them where the turf was grown, stating that you do not wish to buy turf grown on peat. Unfortunately, the upcoming ban on the use of peat in horticulture does not include turf, so the more times retailers hear this, the more likely they are to offer peat-free turf.

Going peat-free in your garden is an amazing step we can all take to help protect nature and our climate. Download our free Peat Action Pack to find out more about why we should all #LovePeat

Download our peat action pack